Thus Chen Meng maintained her current level of ascendancy over Wang Manyu; last December she prevailed in five games when they met at the quarter-final stage at the Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Incheon; in January she succeeded in straight games in Hungary in the penultimate round and more recently at the same round in Budapest at the Liebherr 2019 World Championships.

Moreover, always when they have met in an ITTF World Tour women’s singles final, Chen Meng has emerged successful; she prevailed in 2017 in both Qatar and Australia, as well as last year in Austria.

Success against an adversary, who like Chen Meng has an incredible level of consistency, but watch her play and does Wang Manyu not to some extent defy the coaching textbook?

Rewind the final of her matches, rewind the final against Chen Meng and look at the difference when they receive service. Chen Meng is totally orthodox, playing against the right hander when receiving service her feet are at an angle to the table. It is with very subtle variations how a million and one players stand to receive service against an opponent who uses the same hand; it is how they are encouraged by their mentors.

Now watch Wang Manyu receive service, she stands parallel to the table; a player who receives service with her feet at that manner will surely have more problems that most when the opponent directs attacking strokes towards the so-called indecision point, the elbow of the playing arm where the split second decision has to be made whether to play a backhand or forehand.

Yet, Wang Manyu appears able to adapt and most importantly keep her balance; the forehand might not be of the classic variety when the direction of play is changed but for Wang Manyu it works, she executes the stroke with a minimum transfer of weight from the legs and recovers.

It was an area in which Chen Meng focused her early strokes in the rally but my word she was made to work hard; Wang Manyu responded time and time again. Chen Meng prevailed but was the reason more a question of confidence than tactical or technical?

She had won the most recent three encounters surrendering just two games, she started 12-2 ahead.

The mission was to prove that whatever the no.11 seeded spot might have read, he is the best player on planet earth, the mission to extend his record in China, the mission to become the all-time most successful on the ITTF World Tour.

Victory meant, he won the China title for an eighth time, well ahead of his now retired nearest rivals, Wang Liqin who prevailed on six occasions, Ma Lin who emerged victorious five times. More significantly it was his 28th ITTF World Tour men’s singles title since he won in 2007 in Kuwait.

A record, he now moves one ahead of Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus with whom he shared top position prior to the gathering in Shenzhen; Vladimir Samsonov having won his first in 1996 in Italy, the inaugural year of the ITTF World Tour, his most recent in 2017 in Australia.

The records of both stand the test of time but I would suggest that the successes of Ma Long are somewhat very special. China is the powerhouse of that sport; that fact is undeniable, always when Ma Long has competed on the ITTF World Tour, his illustrious colleagues have always been present; to be the best, he has had to beat the best.

Notably of those now 28 wins, there are only four occasions when Ma Long has not beaten a compatriot in the final and those encounters have been against most worthy opponents. He overcame Vladimir Samsonov in the title deciding contest in Singapore in 2008 and in Berlin in 2016; in 2009 in Fredrikshavn he accounted for Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov to secure gold, in 2012 in Budapest his final victim was the Korea Republic’s Joo Saehyuk.

One ahead of Vladimir Samsonov but to secure the overall record, if we add the Challenge Series tournaments, which became a separate entity in 2017, Ma Long has still one to go; in that year Vladimir Samsonov won the men’s singles title on home soil at the ITTF Challenge Belarus Open.

Also, if Ma Long is to match his female counterpart, likewise he has one more rung of the ladder to climb, between 1998 and 2009, compatriot Zhang Yining won 29 ITTF World Tour women’s singles titles.

Furthermore, to be the overall most successful Ma Long has still to make strides. Compatriot Ma Lin is clear of the field, a staggering 59 ITTF World Tour titles. During his illustrious career he won 20 men’s singles titles and with various partners claimed 39 men’s doubles gold medals; for Ma Long he has 22 such men’s doubles top prizes, the overall aggregate 50 in number.

Just a mere 10 to go; the next mission, should not take long!

Titles hard earned in the strongest field ever assembled for an ITTF World Tour tournament.

Men’s Singles

…………Ma Long, the no.11 seed, beat Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto, the no.4 seed (14-16, 16-14, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7), before overcoming colleague, Lin Gaoyuan, the no.2 seed (12-10, 11-6, 11-5, 11-4) to retain the title.

…………A 28th ITTF World Tour men’s singles title for Ma Long, he surpasses the record of Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus with whom he stood level before play began.

…………Another record, he won the China title for the eighth time, clear of colleague Wang Liqin who prevailed on six occasions.

Women’s Singles

…………Chen Meng, the no.2 seed, beat defending champion, colleague Wang Mangyu, the no.4 seed (11-3, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7) to secure the title, having at the semi-final stage beaten compatriot Zhu Yuling, the no.2 seed (18-16, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-9).

…………At the semi-final stage Wang Manyu had ended the progress of Mima Ito, the no.7 seed (12-10, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 11-6.

…………It was for Chen Meng her 11th career ITTF World Tour women’s singles title

MA LONG MAKES HISTORY

‘The Dragon’ is officially the most successful player in ITTF World Tour Men’s Singles history after the Chinese superstar surpassed Belarusian legend Vladimir SAMSONOV’s 15 year-long record to claim his 28^th career title in the ITTF’s premier tour format that has run since 1996.

The 30-year-old achieved the feat on a sensational Sunday evening in Shenzhen, where he romped to victory at the Seamaster 2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum China Open, defeating LIN Gaoyuan 4-0 in the final (12-10, 11-6, 11-5, 11-4).

That victory also sealed his eighth success at the China Open alone, extending yet another record which belongs to this remarkable athlete, who has been simply unstoppable since returning to the international stage in March following a seven-month injury layoff.

In the space of just nine weeks, MA equalled SAMSONOV’s record with gold at the Qatar Open. He then clinched his third consecutive crown at the World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest. Now he holds the outright record for ITTF World Tour titles thanks to China Open glory.

Even by his extraordinarily lofty standards, MA’s recent form has been mesmerising.

CHEN MENG: CHAMPION AND WORLD NO. 1!

Just an hour before Ma Long’s heroics, CHEN Meng (CHN) sealed the Women’s Singles title with a convincing 4-1 victory over compatriot and 2018 China Open champion WANG Manyu (11-3, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7).

The result consolidates a number of recent successes, which have seen CHEN climb to the top of the World Rankings for the first time since April 2018.

The most in-form player in the women’s game has now won three ITTF World Tour titles (2018 Austrian, 2019 Hungarian and 2019 China) and the 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in the last six months.

This was also CHEN’s 11^th win from 14 finals in Women’s Singles competition on the ITTF World Tour. Discounting April’s World Championships final which she led and then lost to LIU Shiwen (CHN), the 25-year-old has built up a habit of rising to the big occasions.

JAPANESE STARS FALL SHORT

Undoubtedly two of the standout performers at this week’s China Open were Japanese duo, Mima ITO and Tomokazu HARIMOTO.

ITO provided a stunning display on Saturday to defeat former world no. 1 DING Ning (CHN) 4-1, but went on to lose by the same scoreline to WANG Manyu in Sunday’s semi-final (10-12, 10-12, 11-5, 7-11, 6-11).

HARIMOTO also made it through to the final day after impressive 4-0 and 4-1 wins over Liam PITCHFORD (ENG) and WONG Chun Ting (HKG) respectively.

The 15-year-old also led MA Long in his semi-final, before the eventual champion clinched a tight second game and saw out the victory (14-16, 16-14, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7).

In the day’s two other semi-finals between all-Chinese athletes, CHEN Meng outpowered ZHU Yuling (18-16, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-9), while LIN Gaoyuan overturned XU Xin’s 2-1 lead to win in six games (11-9, 6-11, 5-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6).

DOUBLES DELIGHT FOR GERMAN DUO

Timo BOLL and Patrick FRANZISKA were the stars of the show on Saturday, collecting Men’s Doubles gold medals.

The German pair stunned the current World Champions, WANG Chuqin and MA Long, with an emphatic 3-0 victory over their esteemed Chinese opponents (11-8, 11-7, 11-5).

Chinese Taipei celebrated gold in the Mixed Doubles as LIN Yun-Ju and CHENG I-Ching came from behind to defeat Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem (10-12, 11-6, 11-1, 11-5).

GU Yuting and LIU Shiwen were crowned Women’s Doubles champions after the unseeded pair dominated their all-Chinese showdown with a straight-game victory over top-ranked WANG Manyu and ZHU Yuling (11-7, 12-10, 11-9).

NEXT UP: HONG KONG!

Next week brings the fourth event of the 2019 ITTF World Tour with the Hong Kong Open taking place between 4 – 9 June!

Stay up to date on all the action from the Queen Elizabeth Stadium on ITTF.com, itTV and the ITTF’s social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Weibo.

CHINA OPEN: QUICK LINKS

Notably the tournament carries a high weighting factor for ranking purposes; basically the higher the number, the more points on offer. It is a fact recognised by Khaled El-Salhy, the President of the African Table Tennis Federation.

“The tournament is very important for the African players to get an event with Factor 50 to raise their ranking points compared with the other available events far away in other continents with Factor 20 or maximum Factor 40. Ranking points are very important in the lead up for qualification for the Paralympics Games and World title events.

The event is a qualification for Tokyo 2020, as the winners in each singles’ class will be directly qualified for Tokyo provided to have they have minimum number of ranking points to be announced later.

This is the first African para tournament has been held for four years when we did the same event in Agadir, Morocco in 2015, which was also qualification for Rio 2016. Thus all African para players are keen to take part this year with the tournament being Factor 50 and a good chance for direct qualification to the Paralympics Games.

The Egyptian Table Tennis Federation is working hard with the local organizing committee from Alexandria to have a special event, taking into consideration that the event will be at the same time when Egypt will hosting the 2019 African Cup of Nations. There is a group that will play in Alexandria composed by Nigeria, Guinea, Madagascar and Burundi. It seems we will have a very interesting time in Alexandria, the bride of the Mediterranean.

We have received entries from eight African associations, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Tunisia by the closing date of entry. They will play singles events as qualification for Tokyo 2020 plus also team events for the continental championships.

Each class should have at least four players from at least two different associations. It seems we will have all classes for men starting from class 2 to 11; we may have the record opportunity to conduct a class 11 for the first time in Africa. In women we will combine some classes together due to the shortage of entries in some classes.

Organised in the Complex Hall in the Olympic Club in Alexandria, prior to the African Championships a total of 21 countries that are coming to the Egypt Para Open to get more points for their players, better chance of qualification to Tokyo 2020.” Khalid El-Salhy