China News Service, Beijing, March 10th. The 2024 World Table Tennis Professional League (WTT) Singapore Grand Slam ended on the 10th on the first day of the main competition locally. All national table tennis players who participated in the competition successfully advanced.
The Singapore Grand Slam is the first Grand Slam event of the WTT in the 2024 season, bringing together many world table tennis stars.
The Chinese table tennis team sent all the main players, and on the basis of retaining the winning lineup of the Busan Team World Table Tennis Championships, sent Qian Tianyi and Lin Shidong to participate, aiming to win the championships in the five events of men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles.
In the first round of women's singles, Chinese player Wang Manyu took the lead and faced Indian player Akula.
At the Busan Team World Table Tennis Championships, Akula once defeated the main national table tennis player Wang Yidi 3:0.
Facing Wang Manyu this time, the Indian player showed considerable resilience, and the two held a stalemate until the decisive game.
In the end, Wang Manyu defeated Akula 3:2 to advance.
After the game, Wang Manyu said that in the past two years, Indian players such as Akula and Batra have improved in singles and doubles. They have a stable mentality when facing the Chinese team, and the winner is often determined after multiple rounds of stalemate.
Chinese player Fan Zhendong, who competed as the top seed in the men's singles, also appeared on the first match day and easily defeated Australian player Lu Wei 3:0.
In the next round, he will face teammate Lin Shidong, who eliminated South Korean player An Jae Hyun 3:1 on the same day.
The focus of the men's singles match that day was undoubtedly Chinese veteran Ma Long versus French youngster Alix Le Brun.
The latter and his younger brother Felix Le Brun have made rapid progress in recent years. The French team led by the two brothers successfully entered the men's team finals of the Busan Team World Table Tennis Championships.
In the first game, Malone controlled the rhythm of the game and took the lead with 11:7.
In the second game, the French teenager stepped up his attack and regained the game at 11:9.
Malone fell behind for a time in the third game, but relied on his rich experience to complete the comeback at 12:10, and then secured the victory with 11:4, eliminating his opponent with a big score of 3:1.
Other Chinese players who competed on the first day, Liang Jingkun defeated Portuguese player Apollonia 3:0, and Chen Meng defeated Japanese player Miyu Nagasaki 3:0.
On the 11th, the first round of the men’s and women’s singles competition continued.
The top seed in women's singles, Chinese player Sun Yingsha, will face French player Yuan Jianan.
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