China’s WANG Manyu defends Junior World Champion crown in Vendée

China's Wang Manyu and Liu DIngshuo claims Singles World Junior Championships titles in France

China’s WANG Manyu has successfully defended her Junior Girls’ World title at the ITTF 2015 World Junior Table Tennis Championships that concluded today, 6 December, in Vendée, France. 16-year-old WANG is now the first player to ever win 2 consecutive Singles World Junior Championship titles, after coming back from 1-3 to beat compatriot WANG Yidi 4-3 (11-6, 18-20, 7-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-7) in a 7-games thriller. “It feels great, and I’m really excited to be able to defend my singles title, “ shared WANG after her victory. “It’s been a tough journey having to face many strong players along the way to the final, and playing against Wang Yidi in the final.” “When I was 1-3 games down, I knew I had to fight all I can in order to win, I changed my tactics and played few risky shots to come back.” The Boys’ Singles Gold medal match was a battle between the shakehand style and the traditional penhold style, which had the local crowd cheering throughout the match. It was LIU Dingshuo (CHN), the shakehand player, who eventually prevailed over XUE Fei (CHN), the sole male penholder player in the tournament. LIU accounted for XUE 4-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-5) to win his first World Junior Championships crown. The pleased 17-year-old shared “Of course I’m happy to be able to win here, it’s a good way to prove myself. But I see this as a short term milestone, to move further, I still have to work harder to achieve more.” China continued their dominance in the Doubles event, sending 5 out of the 6 finalists pairs. In the Women’s Doubles, Korea DPR duo KO Un Gum & RI Yong Hae faced Chinese pair CHEN Ke & WANG Manyu, despite pushing the Chinese to their limits, CHEN & WANG won in four straight games (11-9, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7). In an all-Chinese final, defending mixed doubles champions WANG Chuqin & CHEN Xingtong surrendered their titles to XUE Fei & CHEN Ke 3-4 (11-6, 11-6, 7-11, 7-11, 4-11, 11-6, 9-11). Success in the Mixed Doubles, XUE joined hands with WANG Chuqin in the Boy’s Doubles Final to claim the title from LIU Dingshuo & ZHU Cheng 4-3 (2-11, 11-13, 11-13, 12-10, 13-11, 11-8, 11-6). Presented by the Swaythling Club International, the Fair Play Award at the 2015 World Junior Table Tennis Championships was won by Egypt’s Aly Ghallab for his act of fair play at the tournament. Mr. Khaled El-Salhy, President of the African Table Tennis Federation, shared “He’s a very honest player; always he plays fairly. He is always very positive when he plays, he tries to win the point not save the point: I am very proud of his efforts.” With the 2015 World Junior Table Tennis Championships concluded, all eyes now turn to the 2015 ITTF Star Awards on 9 December, followed by the year-ending GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Lisbon, Portugal from 10-13 December 2015. Winners: Boys’ Team: China Girls’ Team: China Boys’ Singles: LIU Dingshuo (CHN) Girls’ Singles: WANG Manyu (CHN) Boys’ Doubles: WANG Chuqin (CHN) & XUE Fei (CHN) Girls’ Doubles: CHEN Ke (CHN) & WANG Manyu (CHN) Mixed Doubles: XUE Fei (CHN) & CHEN Ke (CHN)