Table tennis WTT Doha Stars Tournament is in full swing, Beijing time in the early morning of January 9 ushered in a key showdown, the South Korean combination Zhao Shengmin/Zhu Qianxi debuted, and the French star Alex Lebrun / Yuan Jiannan competed, the two sides fought 5 rounds before winning or losing, Zhao Shengmin/Zhu Qianxi wasted match points to collapse, and finally lost the whole game 2-3, and the first round was eliminated.
Although the above two pairs are not the strongest mixed doubles pairs in their country, the singles level of the four of them belongs to the upper level of the foreign association, so there are still many highlights in this fight, and they did give a wonderful duel, which is worthy of recognition!
Match Focus
Zhao Shengmin and Zhu Qianxi are both rising stars of the South Korean team and have a strong impact, especially the Chinese player Zhu Qianxi has the level to challenge the main force of national table tennis, and Zhao Shengmin has also defeated the master many times.
However, the results of the two French athletes were more impressive, with Alex beating Fan Zhendong, Liang Jingkun and Tomokazu Zhangmoto, and Yuan Jiannan beating Wang Manyu, Misei Ito and Kasumi Ishikawa. However, the two mixed doubles pairs don't work together a lot of times and often change partners, so this time the ranking is not high, and it is difficult to predict who will win before the match because they have to participate in the qualifying round.
The process of the game
After the start of the first game, Alex/Yuan Jianan's tacit understanding was obviously better, plus Yuan Jiannan was a cross-shot forehand and backhand anti-glue athlete, the ball path was more weird, and Korean players also needed time to adapt, as a result, Zhao Shengmin/Zhu Qianxi came up and made a "sacrifice" and lost a city 5-11, which is also a problem that is difficult to avoid when dealing with athletes with special playing styles.
In the second game, Cho Seung-min/Zhu Qianxi were noticeably more relaxed against the French pair, and then the two sides launched a very fierce attack, with the South Korean player having the last laugh with a more consistent curveball attack to win 12-10.
In the third game, Zhao Shengmin/Zhu Qianxi's form was getting better and better, while the threat of Yuan Jianan's side of the French team decreased, and Alex's performance was also unstable, so they lost 6-11 and were reversed, but fell into a desperate situation.
In the fourth game, the French pair was almost taken away, but Alex/Yuan Jiannan still stabilized their position at the critical moment and pulled themselves back from the "death line" at 14-12, and the decisive game came from this, Zhao Shengmin/Zhu Qianxi were reversed after falling behind and holding the match point, and finally won by the opponent again 14-12, thus stopping in the first round of the mixed doubles qualifiers.
It was indeed a very exciting contest, applaud the performance of the athletes on both sides!