20-year-old Fan Defends Men’s Singles Title at Asian Table Tennis Championships

China's Fan Zhendong claims his third Gold medal at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF-Asian Championships!

China’s FAN Zhendong has successfully defended his Men’s Singles title against surprise finalist JEONG Sangeun from Korea Republic at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF-Asian Championships that concluded today, 16 April 2017, in Wuxi, China. This is also the 20-year-old’s third Gold medal from the 2017 Asian Championships, having claimed the Men’s Team title on 12 April, and the Men’s Doubles crown with his teammate LIN Gaoyuan just yesterday. Earlier in the tournament, JEONG challenged reigning World and Olympic Champion MA Long’s dominance in the international table tennis scene, shocking the World number one out of the Asian Championships in the third round of the Men’s Singles event. JEONG also accounted for Rio 2016 Olympic Team Silver medalist Koki NIWA (JPN) in the semifinals, having to come back from 0-2 games down and saving four match points to win 3-2 (6-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7, 13-11) and make his entry into the final. In the final showdown, JEONG was unable to pull off another hat trick against the 20-year-old FAN, losing in three straight games (5-11, 5-11, 8-11). “It’s been a tiring but happy trip here for the Asian Championships. I’ve never thought if I will win or lose in the matches, or who my opponent will be, I was just trying to play each and every match to my best,” shared JEONG. Upon his victory, FAN stated “I didn’t expect that I would win 3-0 in the final, I came into the match mentally prepared for any difficulty, and came with the mindset to fight for every point in the match.” Commenting on JEONG’s dream run at the Asian Championships, FAN added “JEONG has had a good tournament in both the team & singles event, defeating my teammate MA Long, and earlier today, coming back three straight games to beat Koki NIWA.” In the Women’s Doubles final, the gold medal was contested between World Champions CHEN Meng & ZHU Yuling against their younger compatriots CHEN Ke & WANG Manyu. With their experience in major international tournaments, CHEN & ZHU eventually prevailed 3-1 (11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9) to win the title. “We are very happy to win this title here,” shared ZHU after the victory. “CHEN Meng and I will be partnering for the Women’s Doubles event for the World Championships next month too, and we will aim for the Gold in Dusseldorf as well.” With the conclusion of the Seamaster 2017 ITTF-Asian Championships, Asia’s top players will head towards Incheon, Korea with the rest of the world’s top stars for the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Korean Open.

Olympic Champions Ma & Ding Shocked Out of Asian Table Tennis Championships

World & Rio 2016 Olympic Champions DING Ning & MA Long were both shocked out of the Seamaster 2017 ITTF-Asian Championships in Wuxi yesterday 14 April 2017.

MA, who has been dominating the international table tennis scene since he won the 2015 World Championships, fell in the hands of Korea Republic’s JEONG Sangeun 1-3 (9-11, 8-11, 11-6, 6-11).

After winning the match that shocked the local spectators who had came to cheer for the Chinese captain, JEONG stated “Today I’m fortunate to have some lucky scores, after I won the first game I think Ma Long is a bit nervous. And then 2-0, this time my mental status has been calm and stable. The last game I lost a little bit but I came back.”

MA reflected “We had a very tight match during our last encounter as well. I lost the first game when I had the initial lead. After losing that game, I wasn’t handling the situation well, especially in a best of 5 games situation.”

“Actually in the fourth game, I started well with a 3-0 lead, but then I was penalised for a fault service and that did affected me afterwards. Jeong Sangeun was playing very aggressive and well. On the other hand, I made many errors and that gave him more chance.”

Grand Slam Champion DING was stunned by newly crowned Women’s World Cup Champion Miu HIRANO, who turned 17 on the fateful day.

After losing the first two games, the Japanese teenager was eager not to let anyone ruin her celebration plans on her birthday. HIRANO eventually staged her comeback to win the next three games to advance to the semifinals of the Women’s Singles contest for Gold (3-11, 12-14, 11-9, 16-14, 12-10).

“It’s a very memorable birthday for me today. Competing with such a high level player like Ding Ning, especially while, 0-2 down and 5-9 behind in the third game, I feel I had to give my best fight and wasn’t thinking too much at that point,” shared HIRANO who could hardly contain her excitement after her victory.

“Initially my goal was just to try and win this match against Ding Ning, but now that I have done that, I hope to aim for the Gold medal, and I hope my good form will continue into the World Championships!”

The Chinese team’s spirits were not dampened, as they claimed one more Gold to its Gold collection, with CHEN Xingtong & ZHOU Yu claiming the Mixed Doubles title on homeland to conclude the day.

The pair faced Japanese duo Mima ITO & Masataka MORIZONO, who had knocked out their teammates FANG Bo & WANG Manyu just the day earlier, in an epic mixed doubles showdown in front of a capacity crowd.

With the local spectators cheering for them, CHEN & ZHOU quickly raced to a 2-0 lead. Determined for the title, ITO & MORIZONO fought their way back into the game, forcing the match into a fourth game. The Japanese were however unable to repeat their feat, and it was the Chinese who prevailed to take the match 3-1 (11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8) for their title.

“I think we came into the match with a good mindset because table tennis is firstly a combination of good skills and mindset. Although we have not paired for long, we have trust in each other,” shared ZHOU after the award ceremony.

“Yesterday when Ito and Morizono were competing with Fang Bo & Wang Manyu, we were observing at the side. They are very aggressive in their play, so we have to find problems and solutions in terms of tactics and strategies. They are a very strong and determined pair, no matter how much we are leading, their desire to come back remains strong, just like in their match against Fang Bo & Zhou Yu.”

The Seamaster 2017 ITTF-Asian Championships continues tomorrow with 4 more Gold medals for the individual events up for grabs, Women’s Singles & Men’s Doubles on 15 April, and the Men’s Singles as well as the Women’s Doubles final on 16 April 2017.