(by Steve Hopkins)
The Men’s Finals featured World No. 1 and World No. 2, a fitting climax to a year of WTT tour events at the WTT Finals Men Doha. Fan Zhendong had dominated Lin Gaoyuan 4-0 in the Semifinals just two hours earlier, and Wang Chuqin had equaled that feat with a 4-0 win over Dang Qiu. These have clearly been the best to players of 2023, with Chuqin twice taking over World No. 1 – just to lose the title a week later as Fan rose again. Most fans who follow both players, would have expected a tight Final decided by one or two close points.
What no one would have expected was the absolute drubbing that Chuqin issued as he won all four games, never facing a single game point. Chuqin’s win draws him very close to No. 1 again – but because Fan also accumulated points by reaching the Final, Fan will remain in first. But the first rankings of this 2024 Olympic year will have Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin separated by the narrowest of margins.
The top two ranked Chinese teams faced each other in the Semifinals with the World’s Top 2 players (Fan/Chuqin) losing 0-3 to Lin Gaoyuan and Lin Shidong. In the other Semifinal matchup, France’s Alexis and Felix Lebrun fell to the lesser known Chinese squad of Xiang Peng and Yuan Licen. Peng and Licen faced off against the higher seeded Lin Gaoyuan and Lin Shidong (that were humorously referred to as “the Lins” in several interviews with teammates). The result was another surprise as the two lower tier players, Xiang and Yuan dominated in a 3-0 win. Xiang and Yuan actually pulled off upsets in all three of their matches, toppling not just China’s second seeded team and France’s top pair, but also the Japanese team of Togami and Uda.
The last tournament of the 2023 season was a great start to 2024.
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