Presently owing to a lack of international exposure, Yuan Licen has no world ranking but he is no stranger to international play.

A left hander, like Emmanuel Lebesson, Yuan Licen enjoyed success on the ITTF World Junior Circuit.

In 2016 he was a semi-finalist on home soil in Taicang, the runner up in Hong Kong. In 2018 he won in Oman, notably beating colleague Xu Haidong in the final, the player who in December of that year was to be crowned world junior champion. Also again, on home soil in Taicang, he reached the penultimate round.

Excelling when playing over the table, very much in the same manner as Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Jun, Yuan Licen may not be the most powerful player on planet earth, it is his control which makes him such a formidable opponent.

A place in the second round, now can Yuan Licen match his previous best finish at an ITTF Challenge Series tournament? Earlier this year in November at the 2019 ITTF Challenge Belgosstrakh Belarus Open, he reached the quarter-final round.

He was beaten by colleague, Xu Yingbin (11-3, 11-8, 11-7, 13-11), who then lost Emmanuel Lebesson (6-11, 5-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-9), the champion elect. In the final Emmanuel Lebesson accounted for Japan’s Yukiya Uda (12-10, 12-10, 13-11, 11-5).

In Markham, Emmanuel Lebesson, crowned European champion in 2016 in the Hungarian capital city of Budapest, was not able to match the Minsk performance; once again the incredible depth of Chinese talent was underlined.