On the evening of April 21, the 2024 ITTF World Cup Women's Singles Final was held at the Galaxy Arena in Macau, where top seed Sun Yingsha staged a comeback after falling behind 0-2, and finally narrowly defeated teammate Wang Manyu 4-3 to win the first World Cup singles championship in her career, which is also her 11th world championship.
The women's singles final was between world No. 1 Sun Yingsha and world No. 2 Wang Manyu. In the previous semifinals, Sun Yingsha defeated teammate Chen Meng 4-2 and reached the World Cup women's singles final for the second time in her career. The WTT World Table Tennis Federation commented on Sun Yingsha's all-round performance in the article: "Among female athletes in today's table tennis world, Sun Yingsha's forehand attack and transition attack ability are well known. ”
In the Paris Olympics campaign measures recently issued by the Chinese Table Tennis Association, the assessment of foreign wars has been increased, which makes Wang Manyu feel a lot of pressure. In the semifinals, Wang Manyu withstood the pressure and went through six rounds of hard fighting, defeating Zhang Benmei 4-2 to enter the final. After 21 days, the "Seafood Sisters" faced off again, and both of them reached the singles World Cup final for the first time, and whoever won the championship made history.
In this battle, both sides showed excellent competitive form. In the first two games, Wang Manyu found his feeling earlier and won two consecutive games 11-8 and 11-5. In the third game, Sun Yingsha strengthened the attack of the first three boards and pulled back a game 11-4. In the fourth game, the two sides fell into a stalemate, and after the first half of the game was tied 5-5, Wang Manyu scored 6 points in a row to win 11-5.
Sun Yingsha, who was in a desperate situation, once again showed strong combat effectiveness and psychological quality, and she chased two games in a row 11-8, 11-5 to drag the game into the deciding game. The two sides played until 9 draws in the deciding game, and at the critical moment, Sun Yingsha showed a big heart and scored two points in a row without mercy, so as to win the final victory 4-3 and win her first World Cup women's singles championship, which is also her 11th world championship. After scoring the last point to win the championship, Sun Yingsha lay on the ground, and all the pressure was released at this moment. She also kissed the table after the game as a commemoration.
Sun Yingsha said after the game that she was still very happy, it was really not easy today, she tried her best, and she was very eager for this championship. In the end, two points away from winning the game, that's the charm of competitive sports. "In this game, Wang Manyu and I are going all out. Win or lose, we are the winners on the field today. We knew each other very well, I was behind for a while, I was caught up in the seventh game, and then I won the key point. It was a very important game and a very big takeaway for my career. Sun Yingsha said.
Sun Yingsha admitted frankly that this is a very valuable victory for her table tennis career. I made all kinds of preparations for this, and I was glad that I still won the game, so I was very happy. She said: "It's not easy all the way, from the group stage to 16-8, to the final final, every game is very challenging, and I have indeed improved and grown." The last celebration action was to lie down subconsciously, because I really didn't have the strength. Thank you very much for coming to Macau, this World Cup is very exciting, we'll see you next time. ”
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Zhou Xueshuai
Editor/Xu Zhao