On May 11, 2024, Beijing time, the main draw of the Saudi Arabia Grand Slam of table tennis ushered in the 8th match day of the competition, which is also the final day of this competition. The Saudi Grand Slam is one of the four major table tennis tournaments and is the top event of the WTT series. The competition is divided into two stages: the qualifying round and the main competition, and the champion will receive a prize of 65,000 US dollars and 2,000 ranking points.
In this competition, the national table tennis sent 12 main players to participate in the competition, striving to achieve five championships, and the final list of participants for the Paris Olympics will be announced after the competition. At present, the Table Tennis Association has announced some of the Olympic participation lists, Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong have qualified for men's singles, Sun Yingsha/Wang Chuqin have qualified for mixed doubles, and the other entry lists will be announced after the competition. However, with the countdown to the game, the list of participants is basically clear, women's singles Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng, Wang Manyu participated in the women's doubles competition, and Ma Long qualified for the men's team doubles.
The overall performance of national table tennis in this competition was average, although all 12 players advanced to the top 32, but in the subsequent games, Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, Lin Gaoyuan, Wang Manyu and Liang Jingkun and other world champions lost the foreign war and were upset. However, the performance in the team competition was good, mixed doubles Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha won the championship, men's doubles Wang Chuqin/Ma Long defeated Hayasuke Togami/Shinozuka Daito combination to win the championship, women's doubles Chen Meng/Wang Manyu 3:0 Tian Zhixi/Shen Yubin won the championship, women's doubles Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha will meet in the final, and won the women's singles championship and runner-up for the national table tennis in advance.
The men's singles and women's singles champions will be decided on this match day, of which the women's singles Sun Yingsha will win the championship with Chen Mengdebi, and the men's singles Wang Chuqin will compete with Germany's Patrick Francesca for the championship.
Sun Yingsha 2:4 Chen Meng
This game is a contest between the old and new generations of national table tennis players, and it may also be a warm-up match for the finals of the Paris Olympic Games. Sun Yingsha is ranked No. 1 in the world, and Chen Meng is ranked No. 4. Chen Meng has won the World Cup and Olympic singles titles in his career, and is only one step away from the World Championships at the Grand Slam. This competition is Chen Meng and Wang Manyu's Olympic singles qualification battle, in the end Wang Manyu lost the foreign war to stop the top 32, Chen Meng won 3 Japanese stars in a row and Sun Yingsha will meet in the finals, and the Olympic points surpassed Wang Manyu.
In this competition, Sun Yingsha partnered with Wang Chuqin to win the mixed doubles championship, and Chen Meng partnered with Wang Manyu to win the women's doubles championship, and this game is also competing for the second personal championship. In the first game of the game, Sun Yingsha won the game 11:6 and got off to a good start. Subsequently, Chen Meng won three games in a row with 11:5, 11:8, and 11:9, and took the lead in getting the match point with a big score of 3:1. In the fifth game, Sun Yingsha pulled back a game with 11:6. In the sixth game, Chen Meng took the lead in winning the game point with 10:4, and then Sun Yingsha chased four points in a row, and finally Chen Meng won 11:8, winning the championship with a big score of 4:2.
Wang Chuqin vs Patrick Francesca
Wang Chuqin is ranked No. 1 in the world, while Germany's Patrick Francesca is ranked No. 16. Wang Chuqin is the biggest model worker in this competition, and he has won two championships in mixed doubles and men's doubles. Wang Chuqin has already qualified for the Olympics, and he will also be able to do three, which will be a great test of his physical strength and concentration.
German star Patrick Francesca is an old opponent of national table tennis, he has previously defeated Ma Long, Fan Zhendong and other national table tennis stars, and his career has won the Tokyo Olympics table tennis men's team runner-up, and his strength is good. Although Wang Chuqin has an advantage in ranking and record in this game, he should not be taken lightly.