(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
Iran’s 14 year phenom, Benyamin Faraji, defeated World No. 1 Wang Chuqin in early Team action at the ITTF-Asian Table Tennis Championships in Kazakhstan. China logged a 3-1 win overall in their Tuesday match, but that one loss is newsworthy.
Iran has logged some big upset wins in recent years – Noshad Alamiyan has usually been the driving force in those team wins as he has reached as high as World No. 40. But Iran must be doing something right by way of development as they have a teenager making waves on the biggest of international stages.
Faraji won the opening game in the match, an energy-filled lesson in quickness and persistence – getting to every ball and working hard to play big topspins from the forehand whenever possible. 11-8 win for Faraji to start the match. Chuqin dominated early in the second game – and coasted to an easy 3-11 win to tie the match. Faraji fell behind in the third game 3-7 and 5-10, before mounting a comeback – again, choosing not to concede any point and running off four in a row to get to 9-10 before losing. Wang Chuqin took the 2-1 lead, but Faraji entered the fourth game with confidence. The fourth game went to 10-10, then 11-11, before Chuqin missed two balls long. In the final game, it was Faraji who started on fire, winning the first 4 points and leaving Chuqin looking rattled. And Faraji maintained his lead to 6-2 and then 7-3 and then 8-4 and then 9-5. But then the world’s top player reeled him in, cutting the lead to 2 at 9-7, and then to one at 8-9, and then with a blistering backhand at a heavy angle the score was tied 9-9. Chuqin finally stepped up for his serve with confidence, pounded a forehand that was blocked weakly, and then tipped the edge of the net and missed. The ball bounced back to him and he hit it in frustration towards the side barrier. Chuqin to serve, down 9-10. A medium short serve is lifted by Faraji with heavy spin, and Chuqin’s forehand goes just long. Faraji win 3-2. One of the biggest upsets in recent memory – World No. 210 over World No. 1.
The second match was tight too. Noshad Alamiyan dropped the first game to Lin Shidong 11-13, then won the second 13-11, lost the third 16-18, and split the final two games. The match could have gone the other way, which would have made things really uncomfortable for the Chinese team. Still, when you have all of the top ranked players at the event on one team, you are favored in every match – and that may give the emotional edge to the opponents (at least in the Team Event).
Its still early, but today’s win by Faraji may prove to be the biggest story of the tournament.
More action upcoming in the team event as well as singles.
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