At the 2024 WTT Incheon Championships, the men's singles 1/8 finals will be held on March 29, and Fan Zhendong will face German star Francesca in this round. In this game, Fan Zhendong seized the opportunity, especially in the first game, and won three games in a row to end the game 3-0 directly.
Follow-up schedule: Fan Zhendong advanced to the men's singles quarterfinals, the next opponent has not yet been released, and the winner of South Korean teenager Wu Huicheng and Zhang Ben Tomokazu will most likely be Zhang Ben Tomokazu, and it will be a match full of topics.
Fan Zhendong 3-0 Francesca【15-13;11-8;11-6】
Top seed Fan Zhendong played, and his form in the previous stage was a bit up and down, and some unfavorable news broke out off the court, which did cause some trouble for Fan Zhendong. Coming to the Incheon Championship, Fan Zhendong was in very good shape in the first round, and he comprehensively mastered the Japanese teenager Matsushima Terukora and easily reached the top 16.
Francesca is 31 years old, four years older than Fan Zhendong, and is currently ranked 16th in the world. Previously, Francesca defeated Hong Kong's Wong Chun-ting 3-1, and Francesca was also in very good form in that game, playing 11-1 and 11-3 in the first two games, showing a very strong performance.
Fan Zhendong and Francesca are also old rivals, and Fan Zhendong has won 6-1 in 7 previous matches. The earliest meeting between the two sides was the 2013 Changchun Open, which Fan won 4-2, while the most recent meeting was the 2024 Doha Stars Challenge, where Fan won 3-1.
Game recap
In the opening game, Fan Zhendong's serve was calculated, so that he fell behind 0-2 in the opening game, and then Fan Zhendong did not control the error, so that the score was 1-4. Then Fan Zhendong continued to screw into place, and took the initiative to attack and suppress to chase 4 draws, and then Francesca scored 2 points in a row, Fan Zhendong took the initiative to hold on, and quickly followed up to 6 draws. After Francesca led to 8-6, Fan Zhendong held the far platform to 8 draws, and then Fan Zhendong scored the ultimate save to get the game point 10-8, and was overtaken by the opponent 11-10, but still won 15-13 thrillingly.
In the second game, Fan Zhendong led 2-0, Francesca quickly tied it, and then Fan Zhendong dominated in the consecutive holds, thus leading to 5-3. After that, Fan Zhendong was forced to retreat by his opponent, but Fan Zhendong's god-level backshot wiped the edge to 7-3, Francesca had mixed tastes, and then Fan Zhendong withstood the counterattack and led to 8-4, Francesca accelerated to 5-8. After that, Francesca also came to the god level to shoot back, biting the score to 7-8, and then Fan Zhendong stabilized to get the game point at 10-8 and won the second game 11-8.
In the third game, Fan Zhendong scored first and continued to suppress to take a 3-0 lead, and Francesca quickly called a stop. After the timeout, Fan Zhendong stabilized the first three boards to 4-0 and maintained the advantage to a 5-1 lead, then Francesca suddenly accelerated and followed up the score to 4-6, and then Fan Zhendong resisted from the far platform and calculated the return to lead to 8-4. After that, Francesca bit the score to 6-9, and Fan Zhendong got the match point at 10-6 and won the third game 11-6.
So far, Fan Zhendong defeated Francesca 3-0 in three straight games and advanced to the men's singles quarterfinals.