The Geist Cup welcomes a new owner.
On May 28, Beijing time, the 2023 Durban World Table Tennis Championships ended the women's singles final. In the end, Chen Meng lost to Sun Yingsha 2-4 and did not have the opportunity to become the tenth Grand Slam player of National Table Tennis.
Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha have met 9 times before, and Chen Meng has a slight advantage of 5 wins and 4 losses. In the world ranking, Sun Yingsha is first, Chen Meng is second. Whether it is a head-to-head record or a world ranking, the two can be said to be between the two of them.
Sun Yingsha has reached the final of the World Table Tennis Championships for two consecutive years, and Chen Meng has also reached the final again after the 2019 Budapest World Table Tennis Championships. The two previously had the best results in the women's singles event of the World Table Tennis Championships - Sun Yingsha lost to Wang Manyu at the World Table Tennis Championships in Houston two years ago, and Chen Meng lost to Liu Shiwen in Budapest.
Therefore, the importance of this match to the two needless to say, no matter who wins the championship, it is the first time after the World Table Tennis Championships.
Chen Meng moved quickly after the opening, while Sun Yingsha took the initiative to make more mistakes and was not as excited as the semifinals. Chen Meng went down 11-5 first, and Deng Yaping also said that Chen Meng entered the state quickly in the first game, "However, the first three boards are not as good as Sun Yingsha, but the first three boards did not show weakness." It is to fight the opponent, to fight. ”
In the second game, Sun Yingsha took the initiative to adjust and won the game 11-8. In the third game, Sun Yingsha won again 11-7. Deng Yaping also bluntly said that under Sun Yingsha's onslaught from the first three boards, Chen Meng was "pinned down." In the fourth game, when Sun Yingsha once again took the initiative, Chen Meng had no choice but to call a timeout.
"It's a bit of a mess, I can't get through. Chen Meng can't let Sun Yingsha stand and fight, but still has to be dispatched. But in the end, Chen Meng was still disrupted by Sun Yingsha, and lost another game 7-11.
In the fifth game, Chen Meng seized the advantage in the stalemate and won the game 11-7. In the sixth game, Sun Yingsha also firmly grasped the advantage, 11-6, and finally won the game 4-2.
Originally, if Chen Meng could win the gold medal, she would achieve the great deeds of the Grand Slam and join the ranks of Deng Yaping, Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui, Wang Nan, Zhang Yining, Zhang Jike, Li Xiaoxia, Ding Ning, and Ma Long, becoming the tenth Grand Slam player in the history of Chinese table tennis. It is also the oldest of them, 29 years old.
Chen Meng has always struggled in the team in the early part of his career, and he is fourth and fifth in the pick. After Li Xiaoxia retired, Chen Meng was suppressed by Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen and Zhu Yuling - until 2019, when Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen and Zhu Yuling successively declined due to injury, and Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu had not yet risen, Chen Meng seized the opportunity.
In November 2020, Chen Meng defeated Sun Yingsha 4-1 in the World Cup final and won the first individual title in the three major competitions; In July 2021, Chen Meng defeated Sun Yingsha 4-2 in the final of the Tokyo Olympics to win the Olympic championship; At the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, Chen Meng's first chance to win a Grand Slam was in front of her - if she could win the championship, she would surpass Zhang Jike and become the fastest Grand Slam winner in history, but in the end, she lost to Wang Manyu in the semifinals.
A year and a half later, another opportunity was presented in front of her, and she lost to Sun Yingsha.
You know, the 2025 World Table Tennis Championships will be held in Doha, Qatar, by which time Chen Meng will be 31 years old. Considering the end of the Paris cycle, she will most likely fade out of the main force of foreign table tennis, and this loss will also become her eternal regret.
For Sun Yingsha, this championship also gave her the world number one position to be justified - she won her first real world singles championship.
Sun Yingsha has reached the women's singles finals of the three major competitions three times: in the 2020 World Cup, Sun Yingsha reached the final, but finally lost to Chen Meng and won the runner-up; In the women's singles final of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Sun Yingsha lost to Chen Meng again and finally won the silver medal; In the same year, Sun Yingsha entered the final, but lost to Wang Manyu, or the second place... And this time, she finally won the championship, and considering her age, her era has just begun.
There are talented people in the Jiangshan generation, each leading the way for hundreds of years, from Chen Meng's era to Sun Yingsha's era, which is the reason why Guoping is always invincible.