Final Ends in Great Concern, Chen Meng Rushed to Hospital
2015 ITTF Asian Championships
Courtesy of ITTF

Concern not celebration concluded the penultimate day of play, Friday October 2nd, at the Suzuki 2015 ITTF-Asian Championships in Pattaya, Thailand; the name of the champion is that of China’s Zhu Yuling but there were no celebrations from the quiet well-mannered 20 year old.

Proceedings in the final of the Women’s Singles event terminated abruptly when, with Zhu Yuling leading by two games to one, Chen Meng stopped, unable to move, clearly in great pain.

Stretcher Called
A seemingly quite innocuous movement resulted in her being stretchered from the arena in distress and rushed to hospital.

The nature of the injury is as yet unknown but the reaction from Chen Meng suggests it is of a serious nature.

Irrelevant
Victory in five games is the official score-line (12-10, 11-8, 6-11, 11-1, 11-0) but it is no interest to anyone; especially to Zhu Yuling.

Thought Muscle Strain
“When I was leading 3-1 in the fourth game, she suddenly couldn’t stand properly when trying to get the ball back, I didn’t know what happened”, said Zhu Yuling. “Initially I thought it was a muscle strain but she just squatted there and couldn’t get up.”

Zhu Yuling reacted immediately.

“When I went over to her, she told me she pulled her muscle on her upper leg, it was numb and she couldn’t even move or stand up”, added Zhu Yuling. “I have to go to the hospital to visit her now!”

Play concludes on Saturday October 3rd with the semi-finals and finals of the Women’s Doubles and Men’s Singles events; Chen Meng is due to partner Zhu Yuling with whom she won the title in Busan in 2013.

Undoubtedly Chen Meng will take no further part in the tournament.

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