On May 9, Beijing time, the WTT Saudi Arabia Grand Slam entered the penultimate day of competition, and the top 4 singles were born on this day; Men's and women's doubles will produce finals; Mixed doubles is the birth of champions! The national table tennis team ushered in 8 matches throughout the day, including 7 foreign battles and 1 internal war, and as the game progressed, the process will be more exciting!
At present, the two semi-finals of men's and women's doubles have ended, and in women's doubles, the national table tennis pair Chen Meng/Wang Manyu defeated the multinational pair Bayo/Kukulova of Poland/Slovakia 3-1; South Korea's Tian Zhixi/Shin Yubin defeated Hong Kong/Australia's Lee Hao Ching/Liu Yangzi 3-0, and Chen Meng/Wang Manyu will now compete with South Korea's Tian Zhixi/Shin Yubin for the Women's Doubles title!
In men's doubles, the national table tennis pair Ma Long/Wang Chuqin swept the Swedish pair Carlsen/Carlberg 3-0; Japan's Hayasuke Togami/Daito Shinozuka beat the Lebrun brothers 3-0, and now Ma Long/Wang Chuqin will compete with Hayasuke Togami/Shinozuka Daito for the Men's Doubles title of this tournament!
In the singles event, two women's singles semi-finals have been born, and Japan's Hina Hayada and national table tennis player Wang Yidi have advanced to the women's singles semi-finals! Hina Hayada eliminated India's Batra 4-1, and the next women's singles semifinals will face the winner between Chen Meng and Zhang Benmeiwa;
Wang Yidi defeated Japan's Misei Ito 4-3, and the women's singles semifinals will face the winner between Sun Yingsha and Qian Tianyi.
Next up is a men's singles quarter-finals, played by French straight star Felix Lebrun against South Korea's Jang Woo-jin, although this match is a contest between players from foreign associations, but it has also attracted great attention from many fans. In the games that have passed, the overall performance of the two players mentioned above has been very strong.
Felix Lebrun is 17 years old and is ranked No. 5 in the men's singles world; Zhang Yuzhen is 28 years old, ranked 20th in the world, and the two have played each other 1 time before, with Felix Lebrun coming out victorious!
Felix Lebrun's path to qualification: In the first round of men's singles, he defeated Kazakhstan's "first brother" Glasmenko 3-1; In the second round of men's singles, he eliminated Germany's Duda 3-2; In the men's singles 1/8 finals, he swept Japan's Tomokazu Zhangmoto 3-0, and Tomokazu Zhangmoto lost his roar in the whole game, and advanced to the top 8 of men's singles.
Zhang Yuzhen's road to promotion: Men's singles defeated Chinese Taipei's Feng Yixin 3-1 in the first round; In the second round of men's singles, Ma Long broke out a big upset with a 3-0 clean sheet; In the men's singles 1/8 finals, he eliminated the Slovenian star Darko 3-2 and advanced to the top 8 of men's singles. Here are the details of the match between Zhang Yuzhen and Felix Lebrun.
In the first game, Zhang Yuzhen took the lead 2-1, and then Lebrun scored 3 points in a row to overtake the score, and the two fought from 5-5 to 9-9 in the middle of the game, Zhang Yuzhen got a chance to get a game point 10-9, Lebrun saved the game point, and fought to 10-10 draw, at the critical moment, Zhang Yuzhen scored 2 points in a row, 12-10 took the lead.
In the second game, Zhang Yuzhen took the lead 3-0, and then Felix Lebrun scored 5 points in a row to overtake the score, Zhang Yuzhen also scored 5 points in a row, 8-5 to take the lead, Lebrun chased to 8-8 draw, and then Zhang Yuzhen scored 3 points in a row, 11-8 and the next city, and the big score was 2-0 to take the lead.
In the third game, Lebrun took a 3-0 lead, Zhang Yuzhen scored 4 points in a row to overtake the score, Lebrun scored 3 points in a row, 6-4 to take the lead, Zhang Yuzhen chased to a 6-6 draw, and then Lebrun scored 5 points in a row, won the third game 11-6, and chased the score to 1-2.
In the fourth game, Zhang Yuzhen made a perfect start of 6-0, Lebrun chased 2 points in a row, Zhang Yuzhen also scored 2 points in a row, 8-2 to open the score, and then Lebrun chased 3 points in a row, the score came to 5-8, Zhang Yuzhen asked for a timeout.
After the pause, Zhang Yuzhen stabilized the situation and got 4 game points in the fourth game 10-6, Lebrun saved 1 game point, Zhang Yuzhen still seized the opportunity and won the fourth game 11-7, taking the lead with a big score of 3-1, and forcing Lebrun to the edge of the cliff in the case of 7 games and 4 wins.
In the fifth game, Lebrun took a 4-1 lead, Zhang Yuzhen scored four points in a row to overtake the score, and Felix Lebrun asked for a timeout. After the pause, Zhang Yuzhen scored 3 points in a row and opened the score 8-4. At the end of the game, Lebrun got 3 match point opportunities in the game 10-7, and finally decisively cashed in the match point, won the fifth game 11-7, eliminated Felix Lebrun 4-1, and advanced to the men's singles semifinals!
Zhang Yuzhen's performance in this tournament is indeed good enough, the next men's singles semifinals, Zhang Yuzhen will face the winner between the two German players Qiu Dang and Francesca, with Zhang Yuzhen's current state, the probability of advancing to the men's singles final is very high, and in the first half, whether it is Wang Chuqin or Lin Shidong to break through, if you want to defeat Zhang Yuzhen to win the championship, the process will definitely not be easy.