On the evening of May 11, Beijing time, the WTT Saudi Arabia Grand Slam ended in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Chinese stars Wang Chuqin and Chen Meng were crowned men's and women's singles champions respectively, winning three and two crowns respectively. The Saudi Grand Slam is the highest-level event before the Paris Olympics, and such a result is also unusual for the pair.
Wang Chuqin "rehearsed" a three-front battle
During the Saudi Grand Slam, the Chinese Table Tennis Association announced the list of participants in some Olympic Games. Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha qualified for mixed doubles by virtue of their world No. 1 ranking and topped the internal selection standings, and will play alongside Fan Zhendong in men's singles. At the same time, according to the relevant regulations of the International Table Tennis Federation, the above three people will automatically obtain a place in the team competition - Wang Chuqin will fight on the third line in Paris.
In this Grand Slam, Wang Chuqin is the only player in national table tennis who has three events. Previously, he had won the mixed doubles and men's doubles championships with Sun Yingsha and Ma Long respectively with his stable performance. In the singles final, Wang Chuqin's opponent was the German good Francesca. The latter defeated Ma Long in this year's Singapore Grand Slam, and narrowly defeated Fan Zhendong in the third round, and then eliminated Qiu Dang, Zhang Yuzhen and other famous players.
However, Wang Chuqin was very well prepared for this game and took a 3-0 lead with a devastating momentum. Although the opponent then narrowly won the two games, the Chinese star finally won the sixth game, defeated the opponent 4-2, and also locked the last championship of the Grand Slam for the national table tennis. After entering the Olympic Games, Wang Chuqin was unstoppable, participating in five high-level events and reaching the top four times, ranking first in the world.
At the moment of victory, Wang Chuqin made a gesture of "3". He said that he had not been crowned the "Triple Crown" in the Grand Slam before, and he was a little regretful, but he was very happy to get his wish this time. "The whole competition, from the beginning to the end, is very long and painful, and it is my biggest gain to bear this long and torment." Wang Chuqin said that this good result will make him more motivated to face the Olympics, "and not afraid of the Olympics." ”
It is worth mentioning that that day happened to be Wang Chuqin's 24th birthday. He revealed that he had previously secretly wondered if he could get his wish on his birthday, "I am very happy, today is a wonderful day." ”
Chen Meng's "stable output" counterattack
As the defending Olympic women's singles champion, Chen Meng broke the "championship drought" of more than two years in this tournament and added important weight to the competition for the Olympic singles quota. In the women's singles final, she defeated teammate Sun Yingsha 4-2, ending a six-game losing streak against the latter.
National table tennis head coach Li Falcon previously said that the world's No. 1 Sun Yingsha has basically locked in the Olympic singles seat, and Chen Meng and Wang Manyu will compete for another "ticket". Although Chen Meng has played steadily in the past two years, he has not won a singles title for more than two years since he won the Singapore Grand Slam in March 2022. This season, she played in four tournaments and was the top 4 "guaranteed", but all of them lost to Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu, two new talents, and the world ranking also fell to fourth, and the competitive situation is precarious.
After switching to Saudi Arabia, Chen Meng staged a Jedi counterattack. In women's doubles, she and Wang Manyu reached the top with strong rivals, laying confidence and experience for the Olympic team event. In the singles competition, she successively eliminated the Olympic lineup of the Japanese team - Miu Hirano, Miwa Zhangmoto, and Hina Hayata, and tried her best to keep the second half of the area under the condition that Wang Manyu was out of the "foreign war" early, and met with her teammates in the finals to help the national table tennis lock the women's singles championship in advance.
In the past confrontation with Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng is at a disadvantage with 5 wins and 10 losses, and has lost six consecutive matches since last year's World Table Tennis Championships in Durban. But in this final, Chen Meng won three games in a row after losing one game first, and finally defeated the world No. 1 4-2. With the high number of points from the gold medal at this tournament, her women's singles world ranking will return to second place next week, and in principle, she will qualify for the Olympic singles competition.
After the game, Chen Meng said that he was very surprised, but he didn't expect the singles to be blocked. "It's very rare for me to take this opportunity." Chen Meng said that he has been trying his best to pass this competition, because every level is very sad, "very excited, very happy." ”
Courtesy of WTT World Table Tennis Federation
Source: Beijing Daily Sports
Reporter: Wang Xiaoxiao