(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
Hugo Calderano reached 10 first in the opening game of the Men’s Singles Final today at the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Doha. Unfortunately, despite being up 10-9, Calderano lost the next three points. That momentum shift may have been the difference in the match, as Chuqin not only logged that comeback win in the first game, he then dominated the second 11-3. There was another big push from Calderano as he won the third game, but that was his only win. Chuqin pressed on, playing careful, preserving leads, and overall dominating the pace of play as he has against most opponents over the last two years.
For World No. 2 Wang Chuqin, he rebounded from a disappointing Semifinals loss at the World Cup to dominate at these World Championships. Chuqin played seven matches, logging 28 game wins while only losing 4 games. That’s a great tournament – and with wins over Truls Moregard and Lin Yun-Ju, and his revenge over Calderano (who eliminated him in the World Cup), its a great run for a great champion.
This run was also a victory for Calderano. For the Brazilian, his string of amazing play extends over two of the biggest tournaments of the year and while he fell short in this event, in the World Cup and World Championships he has a pair of Finals appearances and a win. He has out performed the world through those two tournaments. In these two tournaments he defeated World No. 1, No. 2, No. 4, and No. 5. And he and Wang Chuqin split their two matches with Calderano winning at the World Cup, and Chuqin winning at the World Championships. Chuqin has a great day today – likely just one more in a long line of great days. But for these last two major tournaments, the best player in the world has been from Brazil.
Sun Yingsha dominated the Women’s Singles event. On her path to the Finals, she lost only 3 games – and that included a 4-0 win over Mima Ito in the Semifinals. Yingsha needed all 7 games to defeat Wang Manyu, but she never trailed as Yingsha won the first two games, and the fifth, and the seventh on her way to the victory.
Men’s Doubles went to Hioroto Shinozuka and Shunsuke Togami of Japan. They beat the Taipei pair of Kao and Lin (Kao and Lin defeated the Lebrun brothers in the Semifinals). Women’s Doubles went to Wang Manyu and Kuai Man. Mixed Doubles went to the pairing of Singles Champions as Wang Chuqin teamed with Sun Yingsha to continue their dominance in Mixed Doubles.
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