(by Steve Hopkins)
World No. 1 Fan Zhendong and World No. 2 Ma Long seemed destined to meet in the Final. Both swept through the early rounds almost unchallenged – with Fan not losing a game until the Quarterfinal and Ma Long not losing a game until the Semifinal. Ma Long continued to cruise with a 4-1 win over Calderano in their Semifinal matchup. For Fan, he had strong opponents in the Quarters and Semis – he needed to rally to beat Truls Moregard after being down 1-2, and he then faced World No.3 Wang Chuqin in the Semifinal (a 4-1 win). Perhaps being tested with tougher matches helped Fan as he started strong – winning the first two games, and never looked back.
Ma Long and Fan Zhendong are no strangers in Finals matchups. In fact, a year ago in this same event, Fan defeated Ma Long 4-3 in the Final. In 2020 the two faced each other in Finals twice, and split – With Fan winning the World Cup, and Ma Long winning the ITTF Finals.
2023 was no different than 2022. Fan Zhendong wins the Singapore Smash 4-1 (5, 11, -8, 9. 9).
On the Women’s side – it was World No. 1 Sun Yingsha finishing first. The main surprise of the event was that Sun’s Finals opponent was World No. 22 Qian Tianyi (also from China), and not any of the other 18 players who were seeded ahead of her. Sun dominated the Final with a 4-1 win, but another young Chinese star is heading up the ITTF Rankings.
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