In the early morning of January 9th, Beijing time, the national table tennis ushered in the continuation of the WTT Doha Star Match, the 60-year-old former national table tennis world champion and current Luxembourg main player Ni Xialian appeared on the stage, and together with her partner Luca, she faced the Indian combination Takar / Kamath in the first round of mixed doubles, but Luca / Ni Xialian was reversed 1-3 after 4 rounds of hard fighting, and the mixed doubles journey ended in one round.
Prior to this, Chinese Taipei world champion Zhuang Zhiyuan had already gone out with his partner Gao Chengrui in the men's doubles event, and also lost to the Indian player (Takar/Manush), and now Ni Xialian has also suffered a defeat, it seems that Indian table tennis is indeed improving!
See below for a detailed breakdown of the battle.
Match Focus
Ni Xialian is a very familiar table tennis player, who once represented the Chinese team to win the women's team and mixed doubles championships at the World Table Tennis Championships, but that was in 1983. After going abroad to develop, Ni Xialian has won many European championships, and at the age of 58, she won the bronze medal in women's doubles at the World Table Tennis Championships with Luxembourg's Denut, and recently mainly took Luca to participate in the mixed doubles competition and hit the Olympic qualification.
Although Ni Xialian's strength is not bad, Luca's level is average, and Indian table tennis players have improved a lot recently, and the degree of tacit understanding is also good, and there are many special players in the team, so they are not very afraid of Ni Xialian's long glue, and there is suspense in this battle.
The process of the game
After the start of the first game, the Indian pair really adapted to Ni Xialian's ball path better than the average person, and did not panic at all when receiving the long glue, and soon took the lead, which shows that they were indeed prepared, but Luka/Ni Xialian quickly made adjustments, increased the threat of attack, and then won the first place with an 11-7 reversal.
In the second game, the Indian team decided to simplify the ball, not giving Ni Xialian room to change, and took a long ball attack to break the defense when they had the opportunity, and soon took a huge lead, and then easily pulled back a city 11-3, and the suspense of the game increased sharply.
In the third game, the two sides began a torturous tug-of-war, but Takar/Kamath withstood the pressure at the last minute and won 11-9, leading 2-1 to push their opponents into a desperate situation. In the fourth game, the Indian pair continued to work hard to seal the victory 11-5, and thus eliminated Luka/Ni Xialian in three consecutive games to advance to the second round of the mixed doubles qualifying round.
Although she lost the game, Ni Xialian still showed superb long rubber skills, but unfortunately the level of her partner is relatively inferior, and she is already 60 years old after all, so it is already very good to be able to participate, just enjoy the process.
I look forward to Ni Xialian's performance in the next game, and I also applaud the Indian player's performance!