Original title: Durban World Table Tennis Championships: Ten men and women from the Chinese team played in singles and advanced to the top four in mixed doubles
On May 24th, local time in South Africa, all 10 players from the Chinese team who participated in the men’s and women’s singles competition at the 2023 Durban World Table Tennis Championships appeared on the stage. Except for Wang Manyu who encountered tenacious resistance and struggled hard to pass seven rounds, the remaining nine players hardly encountered too much difficulty , all passed.
In the men’s singles match, in a focused matchup, Fan Zhendong defeated his old opponent, veteran Huang Zhenting of the Hong Kong team of China, 4:1; Ma Long and Wang Chuqin defeated Swedish player Christian Carlsen and the Japanese team respectively with the same score of 4:1 Rookie Uda Yukiya; Lin Gaoyuan, who played later, swept South Korea’s Lee Sang-soo in straight sets, and Liang Jingkun won England’s Paul Kinkhall 4:1.
Wang Chuqin said that winning the game is of course the best result, but there are still many things to summarize, and now we must focus on the next game instead of thinking too much about other things, “Less distracting thoughts.”
Ma Long believes that the last time he and his opponent played against each other was four years ago, so it’s hard to say that they are very familiar with each other. The key to winning is to mobilize the state faster and grasp the initiative on the field.
In the women’s singles match, facing the Ukrainian chipper Hannah Hapernova, who is only ranked 213th in the world, Wang Manyu, the defending champion and currently ranked second in the world, fought hard for seven rounds, 4:3 and almost broke the upset.
“The heartbeat can be heard every second in this game.” After the game, Wang Manyu was still “fearful”. She said that she once thought of the possibility of losing during the game. The adjustment of the state, “If you adjust the state, you may be more released. After such an intense and exciting game, you will be more open-minded.”
Chen Xingtong also encountered a little resistance, but she still withstood the pressure at the last moment and defeated Zhu Chengzhu from Hong Kong, China 4:2. “The sound of breathing is obvious, and the air is a little frozen.” Chen Xingtong said that when the game fell behind 1:2, she did feel a clear and real sense of tension. “Fortunately, my mind is clearer at this time, and I have not lost my mind. I always keep a clear mind and give full play to my skills.” In her opinion, confidence in the game is built from every point of victory.
In other games, Wang Yidi defeated Portuguese player Fu Yu 4:1, Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha both swept German player Shan Xiaona and Romanian player Elisabeta Samara 4:0 respectively, and easily advanced to the top 16 women’s singles.
In the doubles arena, Chen Meng partnered with Wang Yidi and defeated Romania’s Samara and Dragoman 3:0, easily advancing to the quarterfinals of the women’s doubles.
In the mixed doubles competition, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha went straight to three games and swept the Chinese Taipei team Chen Siyu and Lin Yunru 3:0. Kuaiman and Lin Shidong defeated the French team Gouz and Pavard 3:1, and both advanced to the semi-finals. (Reporter Wang Xi)