Lausanne, Oct 4, 2014: World number one XU Xin showed why he is officially the best in the world, by coming from 1-2 down to beat his teammate, 17 year old FAN Zhendong.
The pen holder was able to cope with the pressure better in the crucial points than the Youth Olympic Games champion, and won the titanic battle 11-6, 5-11, 11-13, 12-10, 11-8.
Overcame with emotion that he fell to the ground after match point, the 24 year old shared: “This is an important platform for me to prove myself, and move closer to my Rio Dream. Hence this victory is really meaningful to me.”
Facing tough resistance in the finals, he added: “The finals was very tough, both of us played at the highest level. I think the most important factor lies in the crucial points and my mentality. In the third game, I missed my game point and lost the game, but I was able to adjust fast to play the fourth game. I believe that is the key to the victory.”
The losing semi finallists CHUANG Chih Yuan (TPE) and JOO Saehyuk (KOR) took home the bronze medals.
LIU Shiwen made up for losing the world number one ranking to compatriot DING Ning in the latest October rankings, by being crowned Asian Games Women’s Singles Champion, which happened to be China’s 150th gold medal of the 17th Asian Games.
LIU Shiwen blew her less experienced opponent ZHU Yuling off the table in a scintillating table tennis performance. The 23 year old from Liaoning, China won 11-6, 11-4, 13-11, 11-7 to add the singles gold to the team gold and doubles silver she won earlier in the week.
A delighted LIU Shiwen said after the match: “I’m very excited to have won the title! I didn’t think too much on how the final score will be, and I never thought that I would win 4-0. During the match, I kept telling myself to stay focus and fight for every point.
I think I performed better than I expected for both my matches today. I felt nervous during the past few days, including my team matches. But it’s the final day of competition today, and I could go all out to play in the games.”
Bronze went to local favourite YANG Haeun (KOR) and FENG Tianwei (SIN).
XU Xin and LIU Shiwen‘s gold medals today brought China’s tally up to six for the Asian Games table tennis event, after claiming gold in the Men’s & Women’s team, as well as the Men’s & Women’s doubles earlier in the week. The seventh gold medal went to North Korea who won the Mixed Doubles event.
The best Asian table tennis player’s focus now turns to the 2014 ITTF Women’s World Cup, which will take place on 17-19 October 2014 in Linz, Austria and the LIEBHERR 2014 ITTF Men’s World Cup to be held in Dussledorf, Germany on 24-26 October 2014. —- Photo Credit: AN Sungho/ITTF
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