The battle for the WTT Championship in Budapest has just ended.
Unfortunately, Guoping failed to win the championship. Although Wang Manyu won the women's singles championship, Lin Gaoyuan was reversed by Japanese player Tomokazu Zhang Benji and missed the men's singles championship with a 3-0 lead.
Image source: WTT official social media
Today is the final day of the inaugural WTT European Summer Series.
From the 11th of this month to the present, the Star Challenge, the branch competition and the championship have been held in Budapest one after another.
Last week, National Table Tennis won four championships in mixed doubles, women's singles, women's doubles and men's singles in the Star Challenge.
Different from the Star Challenge, the Championship only features men’s and women’s singles, and the reward points are generous. The champion will get as many as 1,000 ITTF World Ranking points, so the competition is very fierce.
In last week's Star Challenge, although Chen Meng and Wang Manyu withdrew from the singles competition due to injuries, Wang Yidi and Sun Yingsha successfully joined the final; in this week's championship, the top four women's singles world rankings Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, and Wang Yidi are even more Take the top four spots.
Both semi-finals played 7 rounds, which shows that the strength of the four top players is equal to each other. The national table tennis women's team not only has strength advantages, but also group advantages.
Wang Yidi has made obvious progress this season. In the data picture, photo by Liu Guanguan, a reporter from the News Agency
Especially Wang Yidi, the progress she has made this year is obvious to all, and she also won the women's singles champion of the Star Challenge before.
Although they are very familiar teammates, Wang Manyu and Wang Yidi have not played against each other in international competitions since 2020.
In today's final, they went all the way to 9:9 in the first game. At the critical moment, Wang Manyu made a more decisive move and went to the next victory.
The backhand stalemate is the focus of the match between the two.
In the confrontation, Wang Manyu's return angle and quality were better, which allowed her to gradually incorporate the game into her own rhythm and maintained the lead in game points.
In the end, Wang Manyu defeated Wang Yidi 4:2 and won the championship.
It is worth mentioning that in the Star Challenge and the Championship, Wang Manyu, who was fighting with injuries, twice eliminated the famous Japanese star Mima Ito as the main opponent of the national table tennis team in one week.
Image source: WTT official social media
Compared with the women's singles, the men's singles final between Lin Gaoyuan and Zhang Benzhi and this foreign war may affect the fans' emotions more.
In the game, Lin Gaoyuan quickly entered the state, and he suppressed Zhang Benzhihe on the scene, and soon took the lead of 3:0.
However, Zhang Benzhi, who had no way out, launched a denial, and his fights worked repeatedly, winning three consecutive games to score 3:3.
The tiebreaker was like a microcosm of the previous game: after taking the lead, Lin Gaoyuan was not as resolute in handling the ball as Zhang Benzhi, resulting in a gradual disadvantage.
In the end, Tomokazu Zhangben completed the reversal and won the championship.
Judging from the progress of this series, after entering the Paris Olympic cycle, the competition for men's singles is very fierce.
In the Star Challenge Tournament, Wang Chuqin, Ma Long, Liang Jingkun, and Moregaode reached the semi-finals, and Wang Chuqin won the championship; in this week's championship, the top four places were occupied by Lin Gaoyuan, Zhuang Zhiyuan, Francesca, Zhang Benzhihe, as the "only seedling" of national table tennis. Lin Gaoyuan failed to win the title.
Image source: WTT official social media
Malone's failure to make it to the Final Four of the championship game may have been somewhat unexpected by fans.
However, for many elite athletes, the first year of training and preparation after the Olympic Games is often dominated by recovery, especially for older players.
For the 34-year-old Malone, adjusting his physical condition may be his main goal this season.
In addition, because Fan Zhendong's points advantage is very obvious, the world number one did not participate in this event.
The Paris Olympic cycle has just begun, and fans don't need to worry too much.
In this European summer series, several national table tennis players suffered injuries of varying degrees.
I hope you all have a good rest and welcome the upcoming World Table Tennis Championships in Chengdu in excellent condition.
Guoping, keep going!