By Our Reporter
THE historic World Table Tennis Championships Finals got off to an explosive start with the best table tennis players taking to the tables at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas on Tuesday.
Wu Yue from the United States started proceedings for the host nation by taking on Spain’s Sofia-Xuan Zhang in the Women’s Singles Round of 128. Wu did not disappoint the home crowd, recovering from a 0-1 deficit to prevail 4-1 (6-11, 14-12, 11-6, 11-5, 11-3) against the Spaniard.
Portugal’s Marcos Freitas then lived up to his “freight train” nickname by powering through his tricky opening round encounter against England’s Paul Drinkhall in emphatic fashion. The Portuguese knew he’d have to show his ruthless side right from the start, and after five games, emerged the decisive winner (10-12, 11-5, 12-10, 11-3, 11-9).
“I’m looking forward to my next match tomorrow. I’m going to take it day by day as it’s a tough draw. I managed to win today, so I have confidence heading into tomorrow, and I’ll give my best,” said Freitas.
The event saw its first upset with Egypt’s Omar Assar making his early exit. Assar, the first player from an Arabic-speaking country to reach the Men’s Singles quarter-finals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, struggled to get his singles campaign off the ground as the world number 29 lost to the Republic of Korea’s Lim Jonghoon, world-ranked 71st, across five games.
World number 32 Nina Mittelham was also left stunned as she fell to American Amy Wang, ranked 100 places above her. The 18-year-old outplayed the German in straight games to become the second host nation player after Wu reached the Women’s Singles Round of 64.
“I didn’t really have any pressure because she is so much better than me, so I just played freely and tried to keep the ball on the table. I’m going to keep trying my best, and hopefully, I can play well in the next round as well,” said Wang.
While Assar was left disappointed, compatriot Dina Meshref found joy as she defeated Croatia’s Mateja Jeger for the first time to advance into the Round of 64. Dubbed the “African Table Tennis Queen”, Dina seized the early initiative by winning the first two games against her Croatian rival.
Jeger, however, levelled the score to 2-2 after taking the third and fourth games. Dina, part of the victorious Women’s team that won the Women’s Team title at the 2021 ITTF African Championships, proved too strong for Jeger as she won the fifth and sixth game, 11-3, 11-5, to advance.
“This is my first win against Mateja in an international event, and so I’m very happy to get this victory against her. I’m pleased with the mental and physical aspect of my game, too and I would like to progress as far as I can in this event,” said Dina.
In-form Adriana Diaz, who was crowned Women’s Singles champion at last week’s ITTF Pan American Championships, continued to show her imperious form as she dispatched Greece’s Aikaterini Toliou convincingly 4-0 (11-3, 11-7, 11-5, 11-3).
Germany’s Dang Qiu also highlighted his emerging talent with a comprehensive 4-1 win (11-6, 11-9, 11-1, 5-11, 11-9) over Japan’s Yukiya Uda. Qiu, who reached the Men’s Singles final of WTT Contender Tunis in October, raced to a 3-0 lead quickly but saw his advantage briefly threatened when Uda won the fourth game 11-5. Qiu denied Uda any chance of a comeback by winning the fifth game 11-9 to seal his passage to the next round.
Meanwhile, Wong Chun Ting from Hong Kong, China, overcame an early scare in his opening encounter with Ukraine’s Yevhen Pryshchepa to advance. The world number 21 lost his first game 6-11 but quickly swung the advantage back by taking the second and third game 11-0, 11-3. Pryshchepa levelled the score after winning the fourth game 12-10. However, Wong proved too strong in the last two games to close out the match 4-2 (6-11, 11-0, 11-3, 10-12, 11-4, 11-3).
In the Mixed Doubles competition, two historic partnerships took centre stage with United States’ Kanak Jha and China’s Wang Manyu showcasing the power of a fully unified approach as they opened the Mixed Doubles event with a win over Russian Table Tennis Federation’s Vladimir Sidorenko and Mariia Tailakova.
“It’s a great opportunity and a great honour for all of us to be a part of Ping Pong Diplomacy and what it means for the history of our two countries. It was definitely a challenge playing against countries that have already played together many times, but I think that we complement each other’s styles well, and we hope to keep getting better throughout each match,” said Jha.
“I feel very honoured to play in this match; I’m very happy and satisfied with the result. I wish the next players the best of luck,” added Wang.
China’s Lin Gaoyuan and United States' Lily Zhang took on Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia and Jieni Shao, emerging victorious with a dominant 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-7) win.
“It’s an incredible feeling to have the opportunity to play Mixed Doubles with Lin Gaoyuan. Before the match, he gave me a lot of advice, and he constantly reassured me during the match. I have a lot of trust in him even though we’re a first-time pairing,” said Zhang.
“We are a brand-new pair, so we were prepared to face a lot of difficulties in this match, but luckily we played well. We hope for the best in the future rounds. I want to thank all the fans who came to support us. We will try our best to practise and better our game,” added Lin.
The second day of competition at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals will see the Men’s and Women’s Doubles being contested from 1020 (local time) whilst the Men’s and Women’s Singles continue from 1520.
Source: ITTF WORLDS MEDIA
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