At 20:00 on the evening of May 11, Beijing time, the men's singles final of the 2024 WTT Saudi Arabia Grand Slam finale was played between Wang Chuqin, the first brother of national table tennis, and Francesca, the German brother next Monday. At the same time, Wang Chuqin's triple crown also brought him a total prize income of 73,500 US dollars, about 530,000 yuan. Fame and fortune, Wang Chuqin Saudi Arabia is the first person to earn hemp!
Wang Chuqin's strong victory made up for the serious distortion of the national table tennis men's team to a large extent, and Wang Chuqin also completely secured the position of the No. 1 main force of the national table tennis team. Saudi Arabia Grand Slam, among the 6 main forces of the national table tennis men's team, Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan, and Ma Long stopped in the top 32, Fan Zhendong stopped in the top 16, and only the big and small double-headed Wang Chuqin and Lin Shidong reached the top four, but they could not ensure that the championship and Asia were all in hand. Francesca rose to prominence in the bottom half of the bracket and made it straight to the final, becoming the biggest dark horse of the tournament.
Highlights of the game
Wang Chuqin's desire for this men's singles title is as great as an Olympic gold medal. Because he carelessly missed Jingzhou at last month's World Cup in Macau, he missed the perfect opportunity to start his Grand Slam journey. The Saudi Grand Slam is the only way for him to lick his inner wounds, and at the same time, he also plays foreign wars in the finals, which is also a huge flaw that national table tennis cannot tolerate.
Francesca is indeed a dark horse in this competition, his world ranking is not very high, his technical and tactical play is not very advanced, and the signing is not very smooth, but he is one step to kill the enemy, Lian Ke Fan Zhendong, Qiu Dang, Zhang Yuzhen, the three Asian masters, extremely arrogant into the finals.
Relying on the 1400+ points brought by at least the runner-up in this tournament, Francesca will become the new world No. 10 when the latest world rankings are released next week, and at the same time upgrade to the first place in the German team. However, Francesca's name was not included in the Olympic squad announced by the German Table Tennis Association last month, and he was ranked behind Qiu Dang, Ocharov, and Bol, and only got the P card status. Did the German Table Tennis Association self-destruct the official document to declare Francesca as the Olympic representative? Or will Francesca continue as a "first brother" as a P-card? Either way, it's a huge, impolite embarrassment.
The course of the game
In the first game, Wang Chuqin's mentality was very correct, he was calm and firm, actively controlled the short combined with violent attacks, and the technical and tactical framework was more than three points higher than Xiaofu, 11-2, and won the first game without blood.
In the second game, Wang Chuqin continued to improve the quality on the basis of the previous game, and Francesca was completely restricted, and his strengths were not given the slightest chance to play. Datou led 6-1 at the beginning, but because of the high pursuit of quality, he made 4 mistakes, and Xiaofu's initiative scored only 2. 11-7, Wang Chuqin won another game, and Oita led 2-0.
In the third game, Wang Chuqin was fully adapted to Xiaofu, and still firmly occupied the control advantage, Xiaofu was indeed not a player of the same rank as Datou, and he couldn't match the clamp at all. Wang Chuqin led 5-2 at the beginning and directly stopped Xiaofu. After coming back, Xiaofu briefly scored 3 points, and Wang Chuqin then scored consecutive attacks to win another game 11-5, and Oita led 3-0.
In the fourth game, Wang Chuqin continued to show the suppressive power of the grab, and Francesca actively sought change, forcibly starting his strongest backhand attack, and entangled all the way to 8-8. At the crucial point of the final game, Francesca got a lucky white side ball and pulled back a game at 11-8.
In the fifth game, Xiao Fu took a 4-0 lead at the beginning with the support of the relaxed mentality of "just seeking not to lose, which is too ugly". Wang Chuqin made a fuss about the quality of his serve and routines, and soon chased it to a 6-6 draw. Later, Xiaofu once took a 9-7 lead, and the big head finally tied it, but unfortunately sent a key point mistake, and Xiaofu pulled back a game 12-10.
In the sixth game, Wang Chuqin led by 2 points at the beginning, Francesca chased it to 4-4, and the big head took the initiative to reduce the quality of the point, improve the stability, and reopen the 3-point gap. In the end, 11-6, Wang Chuqin won the game.
Oita 4-2, Wang Chuqin successfully won the whole game, and Saudi Arabia won the three Grand Slam crowns, setting an unprecedented dazzling achievement.