In the early morning of April 13, Beijing time, the final of the men's singles final of the table tennis WTT Dusseldorf regional tournament in Germany came to an end.
It is worth mentioning that since the end of 2022, Kanak has been banned for a year for missing doping tests, and only recently returned to the court, and now he is back to win the championship, while Ahn Jae-hyun has won two men's singles runners-up in a row, some people are happy and some are worried.
Kanak is an Indian-American player who was once a table tennis hopeful, having defeated Chinese Taipei's Lin Yunru to win the men's singles third place at the Youth Olympic Games, and also reached the quarterfinals of the men's singles at the World Table Tennis Championships. As mentioned earlier, Kanak also partnered with national table tennis world champion Wang Manyu to participate in the mixed doubles of the World Table Tennis Championships, but unfortunately the match between the two was not very ideal, and they finally failed to win a medal.
However, at the end of 2022, Kanak was banned for one year for missing three USADA (United States Anti-Doping) tests in 12 months.
Kanak was knocked out of the men's singles second round by an unknown French player in the WTT Slovenia feeder tournament in March, and then did not participate in the WTT Croatia feeder tournament in April, and then appeared on the battlefield of the WTT Germany feeder tournament, and this time he was significantly better.
In the first five rounds of battles, Kanak defeated his opponents in a row, especially the 3-0 sweep of Japan's Olympic main Shinotsuka Daito, South Korea's Kang Dongxiu, and 3-1 victory over Chinese Taipei's Feng Yixin.
In the final, Kanak met another South Korean player, Ahn Jae-hyun, who lost in the men's singles final of the WTT Croatia Regional Tournament, wasting as many as 7 match points and losing 2-3 to Hong Kong veteran Wong Chun-ting, only to collapse 2-3 (11-13, 11-5, 11-4, 11-8, 11-8) after five games with Kanak this time, and once again missed the championship.
However, after a year's delay, it is still very difficult for Kanak to qualify for the Paris Olympics, and his experience also reminds all athletes that they must strictly abide by the relevant rules of the competition, otherwise they will suffer.