On May 10, Beijing time, Chen Meng, in the women's singles semifinals of the WTT Saudi Arabia Grand Slam tournament, faced Hina Hayata, both of whom are the top players in their respective countries, and the Paris Olympics are just around the corner, this match is crucial for both of them, and may even have a significant impact on their future careers.
Chen Meng and Wang Manyu were only 1550 points apart before the start of the Grand Slam, the gap can be said to be very small, but Wang Manyu lost to the Indian monster player in this women's singles match, which is to be deducted 3000 points in the foreign war rules of national table tennis, theoretically speaking, as long as Chen Meng can defeat Hina Hayada today to enter the finals, no matter what the result of the finals, Chen Meng's points will surpass Wang Manyu to rise to the top two, and win the Olympic singles quota steadily.
In the last game where the two met, Chen Meng lost to Hina Hayata, which also caused Chen Meng's point deduction to be surpassed by Wang Manyu, perhaps it was freely arranged by God to let the two meet again. It's just that this time Chen Meng didn't make a mistake again, and perfectly played his due strength, crushing Hina Hayada 4-0.
At the beginning of the first game, the two played inextricably together, and the score was very tight, but Chen Meng's state entered faster and earlier, and he was obviously better than Hina Hayada in receiving serves, and the quality of his backhand was very high, and finally won the opening game with a score of 11-9.
In the second game, Chen Meng started with a big lead, but Hina Hayada did not give up, relying on her toughness and strong backhand to chase a few points, but then Chen Meng broke out strongly, took the initiative to attack, seized the opponent's mistakes and continued to attack, and stretched the score again, Hina Hayada tried hard to recover, but Chen Meng did not give the other party any chance this time, and ended the round neatly 11-5.
In the third game, Hina Hayada broke out, playing a wave of 5-0 at the beginning, but Chen Meng relied on a strong forehand and an excellent return to force a breakthrough to tie the score or even overtake, and Hina Hayada was forced to play a timeout. Although Hina Hayata, who was pointed, slowly caught up with the score, she finally failed to recover the decline in the face of Chen Meng's absolute strength, and ended the game 12-10, and Chen Meng won the match point.
In the fourth game, the game between the two was more anxious, and the score was very dead, but perhaps because of the increasing pressure on Hina Hayata, there were frequent mistakes, and Chen Meng seized the opportunity to play a wave of small climaxes and opened the gap between the scores, Hina Hayata's state was no longer there, Chen Meng ended his semi-final game 11-7 and became the first player to advance to the finals, waiting for Sun Yingsha or Wang Yidi to fight.
Chen Meng's opponents in this Grand Slam tournament from the first match of the main tournament are all well-known strong players in other countries, especially the three masters of Japanese table tennis, Miyu Hirano, Miwa Zhangmoto, and Hina Hayata, among which Hina Hayada is ranked fourth in the world today, but they were all cleanly cut off the horse, and in the women's doubles competition, she and Wang Manyu's tacit cooperation also won the doubles championship of this event, if Chen Meng can get the Olympic singles quota, I believe that national table tennis fans will also feel very relieved.