(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
That last two players to hold the World’s No. 1 ranking faced off in the Finals of the WTT Champions Chongqing – with Fan Zhendong topping Wang Chuqin for the $35,000 prize. Fan entered the event at No. 4, his lowest position in nine years (since June of 2015). Perhaps more important to Fan than the cash prize is the 1000 ITTF Ranking Points awarded to the winner – which should be sufficient to vault him back up to No. 2 (leaping past Liang Jingkun and ma Long).
Fan Zhendong started the Final on fire, winning two tight games 11-9, 11-9, and then dominating the third game 11-2. However, the momentum shifted in the fourth game, and then the fifth (an 8-11, and then a 6-11 pair of wins for Chuqin). By the end of the next game (8-11), the match was tied 3-3 and all of the momentum was with Wang Chuqin. But Fan Zhendong dominated the final game 11-4, never letting the World No. 1 get comfortable. An entertaining final featuring the World’s best two table tennis players.
Earlier in the tournament, Fan logged wins over No. 11 and Harimoto and No. 6 Calderano – and, of course, a win over World No. 1 Wang Chuqin as well. For his part, Chuqin had a clean tournament, winning all three of his knock out matches, though he was pushed in his 3-2 win over Matsushima, and he was down (briefly) in his Semifinal 4-2 win over Dang Qiu.
Liang Jingkun fell in the Quarters. He never really hit full stride, falling behind to Alexis Lebrun before coming back for a 3-2 win in the Round of 16, and then losing to Hugo Calderano in 2-3 in the Quarters. Germany had four entrants – with Franziska falling 1-3 to Woojin in the opening round, Boll falling 2-3 to Felix Lebrun in the Round of 16, and Ovtcharov falling to Calderano 2-3 in the Round of 16. The fourth player, Dang Qiu, was the only one not leaving Chongqing disappointed – he topped USA’s Kanak Jha 3-2, then Jang Woojin 3-1, then Felix Lebrun 3-2, before falling in the Semifinals to World No. 1 Wang Chuqin 2-4.
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