Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin Maturing, Capture Men’s Doubles Title
2015 ITTF Asian Championships
Courtesy of ITTF

Gold in every event to date at the Suzuki 2015 ITTF-Asian Championships in Pattaya, Thailand, the success continued on the evening of Friday October 2nd.

Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin beat Korea’s Jung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu to claim the top prize in the Men’s Doubles event (11-8, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7); the complementary styles of the right handed shake-hands technique of Fan Zhendong proving the perfect foil for the left-handed pen-hold efforts of Xu Xin.

Maturing
“They are becoming more mature as a doubles pair and have built up a good rapport after playing together for many major international tournaments”, said Liu Guoliang, the coach of the Chinese National Men’s Team who was clearly pleased with the effort made.

“I think this gold medal will definitely boost their confidence, I believe they will get better in the future”, continued Liu Guoliang. “Their opponents, Koki Niwa and Maharu Yoshimura in the semi-finals and Jung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu in the final, are in their country’s teams for the Olympic Games; we put a lot of emphasis on today’s two matches.”

Possible Full House
Success for Fan Zhendong means he has three gold medals to his credit in Pattaya – Men’s Team, Men’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles – one more for a full house.

“I think their Men’s Singles semi-finals matches tomorrow will be a greater challenge; especially for Fan Zhendong who faces Chuang Chih-Yuan”, added Liu Guoliang. “He has won three of the four events so far, it is a big challenge.”

In the opposite half of the draw in the Men’s Singles event, Xu Xin meets Hong Kong’s, Wong Chun Ting; however, for both Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin, the focus was on the doubles.

Consider Partner
“Sometimes during a doubles match I still become too focused on my own play and forget about giving my partner the chance to attack”, said Fan Zhendong. “This is one important thing that I have to always take note because in doubles it’s not about yourself, but more about cooperation to win.”

Nevertheless, it would appear there is a fine understanding.

Team Captain
“We still had some issues in terms of communicating our strategies on the court”, said Xu Xin. “Our coach, Liu Guoliang is always been telling me to take the lead in the partnership to be proactive in communicating with my partner, in order for us to unite our strengths and play as one.”

It would seem in that respect Xu Xin is succeeding.

Play Concludes
Play concludes on Saturday October 3rd with the semi-finals and finals of both the Women’s Doubles and Men’s Singles events.

2015 ITTF Asian Championships match results from Friday October 2nd.