(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
The last major event before the Summer Olympics is in the books, and the World No. 1 has dominated in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the Saudi Smash. Wang Chuqin entered the tournament as the World No. 1 so the only surprise is how easily he won his matches – over the best players in the World. Chuqin was only pushed to the final game in a match once (against Lin Shidong in the Semifinal), logging a 3-0 win over Gauzy, then topping Ionescu 3-0, then beating Yoshimura 3-1, blanking Groth 4-0, and winning the Semifinal over Shidong by a closer score. In the Final today, Chuqin dominated the first three games, dropped two tight games to Franziska, and the closed the door for the 4-2 win. World No. 1, Wang Chuqin leaves Saudi Arabia 65,000 USD richer, and perhaps more importantly after the 2000 ranking points won, he will enter the Summer about 3500 ITTF Ranking points ahead of second place (a dominant position that would necessitate several tour wins in a row by a rival in order to reach him).
Patrick Franziska loses today, but this was an amazing roll through the WTT’s Saudi Smash. Because of his seeding and position, Franziska’s competition created a much tougher path to the Final than the one traversed by Chuqin. Franziska’s tournament started with a 13-11 win in the fifth game for a 3-2 victory over Anders Lind. He then topped Alvaro Robles 3-0, beat World No. 2 Fan Zhendong 3-2, blanked World No. 11 Dang Qiu 4-0, slipped past World No. 20 Jang Woojin 4-3, and managed to win 2 games off of Chuqin in the Final (when Chuqin had only lost 4 games in the five previous matches combined).
For Franziska, he continues to rise to the challenge to perform his best on the biggest stages. Earlier this year at the Singapore Smash, most of the headlines focused on Timo Boll’s return to form as Boll reached the Quarters. In fact, the strength of this tournament along with some other deep runs early this year caused Germany to name Boll to their Olympic Team (over Franziska). What may have been missed, was that in that same tournament Franziska also reached the Quarterfinals, and he did so by upsetting Ma Long and Dimitrij Ovtcharov in consecutive matches. Fast forward to today, and at this tournament, Franziska managed to defeat Fan Zhendong and Dang Qiu on his way to the Final. Franziska leaves Saudi Arabia as Germany’s highest ranked player. The 1400 points he secures with his Finals appearance more than doubles his ranking points and launches him from No. 16 all the way inside the Top 10. He will not surpass France’s Felix Lebrun (currently No. 5), but in the next Rankings, Franziska will be the second highest ranked European Player. Add to that Franziska’s team wins – Saarbrucken won both the Champions League and the Bundesliga titles this year, and this has been a great year for Patrick Franziska… even if he doesn’t get to play in Paris at the Olympics.
In Women’s Singles, World No. 2 Wang Manyu was upset early (by Manika Batra), leaving room for Hina Hayata to join the top three remaining Chinese players in the Semifinals. World No. 1 Sun Yingsha and World No. 4 Chen Meng won their Semifinal matches. Meng dominated the middle of the match for the minor upset in the Final. Wang Chuqin teamed with Ma Long to win the Men’s Doubles title. Wang Manyu and Chen Meng teamed up to win the Women’s Doubles title. Wang Chuqin logged his third victory by teaming up with Sun Yingsha to win Mixed Doubles.
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