On the evening of March 23, the final of the men's team of the 2022-2023 season of the Japan Table Tennis T-League ended, and finally the Ryukyu Club led by Tomokazu Chang narrowly defeated Kinoshita Tokyo Club of Kinoshita Kawa, 3-2, and successfully won the men's team championship this season.
After the final ball landed, Zhang Benzhihe completely released himself to make a rare celebratory gesture, he not only threw away the racket, but also took off his shirt and roared up to the sky. Then his teammates rushed up to hug him and cheer to celebrate the hard-won victory. Throughout the game, Zhang Benzhihe was understandably so excited.
In the first set, the Ryukuru team sent Maharu Yoshimura/Kazuhiro Yoshimura to play mixed doubles against Kinoshita Tokyo's Yuya Oshima/Shinozuka Daiden, and won the first game 11:7 by the Yoshimura brothers; In the second game, the two sides entangled until 10:10, and after that, Tokyo scored two consecutive points to equalize the big score; In the third game, the two sides once again engaged in a fierce battle, and the final key point battle was won by the Yoshimura brothers 14:12, and the big score was 2-1 to help the team score a point.
In the second set, Ryuki Hamada lost 1-3 to Tokyo's national champion Reiki Kawa, and the scores were 8:11, 7:11, 11:8, 9:11.
In the third set, Tomokazu Chang appeared to face Shinozuka Daden, and in the first game, Shinozuka Dadeng quickly entered the state and took the initiative, constantly suppressing Tomokazu Chang, and finally won the first game at 11:8. In the second game, Shinozuka Daitori took advantage of the victory to chase the Vietnam Battle and become brave, while Chang Motochikazu continued to passively lose another game at 7:11. In the third game, Tomokazu Chang started 5:0, thinking that he could win back Ichijo, but he did not seize the opportunity but lost points in succession, and finally was swept by Shinozuka Daden 8:11 and 0-3.
In the fourth set, Maharu Yoshikawa played again to face Brazil's Hugo, who is ranked No. 5 in the world, and his overall strength is definitely above Maharu Yoshikawa, but Maharu Yoshikawa is also a world champion after all, and naturally he is not weak. In the end, the two staged a strong confrontation, and after five games, Maharu Yoshimura narrowly won 3-2 (11:6, 6:11, 11:3, 9:11, 11:7) to drag the match into the tiebreaker.
According to the rules of the format, only one game is played in the fifth set after the first four sets are drawn. In this set, the two sides sent Tomokazu Chang and Hugo, and in the end, Tomokazu Chang operated like a tiger, and after confirming the lead in the opening game, he won Hugo 11:4 and helped the Ryuki team win the championship with a 3-2 victory over Tokyo. Of course, it must also be said that Ryukyu can win the championship, and Yoshimura Maharu has really made a great achievement.
The two teams met once in December last year, also in the tiebreaker, and it was Hugo who beat Tomokazu Chang 11-8. The two teams met again in the final, and Tomokazu Chang was swept in the third set, and you can imagine how excited it was to win Hugo in the tiebreaker.
Coupled with the recent lack of success for Zhang Benzhihe, the WTT Goa star lost 1-3 to Liang Jingkun, and the WTT Singapore Grand Slam was beaten 3-0 by Aruna, and now helping the team win the league championship can be regarded as the pressure has been released, so there is the celebration we talked about at the beginning.
There will be two WTT championship matches next month, and Tomokazu Chang will also participate, I wonder if he will play well with the blessing of the T-League men's team champion? Let's wait and see!