On the evening of April 21, Beijing time, the table tennis Macao World Cup ushered in the peak showdown of the women's singles final, the world's top two table tennis players Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu met in a narrow way, and Sun Yingsha encountered danger, and was forced into a desperate situation after falling behind 0-2 and 1-3, but she finally withstood the pressure and reversed her teammates 4-3 with a big score, and only won 2 points in the deciding game, thus winning the World Cup singles gold medal for the first time.
Prior to this, Sun Yingsha had already won the women's singles championship at the World Table Tennis Championships in 2023, and now the World Cup has successfully reached the top, as long as she wins the singles gold medal in the Olympic Games, she can become the sixth Grand Slam winner in the history of women's table tennis.
Highlights of the game
Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu are currently ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the world, as well as the first and second players in the team's Olympic standings, and have won one championship in each of the only two World Table Tennis Championships singles events in the Paris Olympic cycle, making them the top athletes in the women's table tennis world today.
Prior to this, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu had played each other as many as 20 times in international competitions, and Sun Yingsha had a 12-8 advantage, especially the most recent time she swept the other party 4-0 at the WTT Incheon Championship in March, occupying a great advantage, so it is generally believed that the probability of her winning again is relatively greater, but there is no certainty of winning, and the state of on-the-spot performance is very important.
The process of the game
After the start of the first game, the two sides began to play more cautiously, mainly looking for opportunities to pick and pull in the table to score, both refused to retreat from the table, resulting in the attenuation of the quality of the return ball, Wang Manyu took the lead in launching, and then everyone's holding rounds began to gradually increase, and they also appeared to be more released on the court, and finally Wang Manyu successfully won the first place with 11-8.
In the second game, Wang Manyu continued to suppress Sun Yingsha's backhand and knocked it back, Sun Yingsha made frequent mistakes, and even lost points directly on the serve, and was then won again by Wang Manyu 11-5. In the third game, Sun Yingsha gradually found her senses, was more flexible in the landing point, and at the same time played more actively, taking the lead to form an advantage, and finally succeeded in winning 11-4.
In the fourth game, the two are still inseparable, and if you don't pay attention to the table, there will be an opportunity to be attacked by the opponent, but if the quality of the attack is not enough, it will also be pulled back and fall into passivity, Wang Manyu used his tall advantage to carry out a large-scale defensive counterattack and once suppressed Sun Yingsha, but then he was penetrated and tied in the backhand field that he is good at.
In the face of Sun Yingsha's step-by-step pressing, Wang Manyu strengthened the offensive threat of the backhand, not afraid of a hard encounter with Sun Yingsha, and at the same time still broke through Sun Yingsha's defense through a larger angle of attack, and won 11-5 after scoring consecutive points, so that the big score 3-1 lead forced Sun Yingsha into a desperate situation, and she could win the championship by winning one more game.
In the fifth game, Sun Yingsha fought with her back to the water, played very bravely at the beginning, kept leading but then played a little conservatively, was chased to only 1 point and called a timeout to adjust, and was once tied by the opponent after returning to the game, but she still carried it to the end, and finally won 11-8 and chased back a game again.
In the sixth game, Sun Yingsha still fought very fiercely, leading 7-1 when she came up, and then dragged the game into the deciding game 11-5, and Wang Manyu made mistakes again and again. In the seventh game, Sun Yingsha led the serve 5-1 and was directly penalized, and her mentality was affected by consecutive losses and was chased to 5 draws, but she finally locked up the victory with 11-9 difficulty, and defeated Wang Manyu 4-3 with a big score and won the World Cup women's singles championship for the first time.