Beijing Daily Sports |Reporter Wang Xiaoxiao.
On December 10, the first ITTF Mixed Team World Cup ended in Chengdu. In the final round of the second stage, the Chinese team defeated the previously unbeaten South Korean team 8-1 to win the first championship of this new competition.
The Mixed Team World Cup uses an innovative best-of-15 format of 15 games per game, i.e. a three-game format is used for each set, and the team that wins the first eight games wins the game. China and South Korea are the only two teams that have been unbeaten before, but China has only dropped nine games and South Korea have lost 10 more games. Whichever team wins this round will win the championship.
In this game, the Chinese team followed the lineup of previous rounds. The first set was still led by the mixed doubles world No. 1 Wang Chuqin Sun Yingsha, compared with the previous rounds of frequent loss of points, the "Shatou" combination was more active in this game, 11-8 and 11-5 to defeat Ahn Jae-hyun Shin Yubin, for the host to take the lead. In the second set, world No. 2 Wang Manyu swept Kim Na Ying 11-7.
The Chinese team, which led 6-0, sent world No. 1 Fan Zhendong to face the 28th-ranked veteran Li Sang-so in the third set of the men's singles match. "Chubby" had won 14 of his previous 15 meetings, but lost 3-1 in the most recent meeting. In this encounter, Fan Zhendong quickly entered the state and won the first game 11-7.
Lee Sang-so, who had no way out, fought in the second game and led to the end of the game. Although Fan Zhendong struggled to save two game points, he still lost 10-12. However, the world No. 1 quickly adjusted and broke through in the third game to seal the victory 11-4. The Chinese team defeated the South Korean team 8-1 and remained unbeaten in the second stage of the round-robin, winning 56 games and losing 10 games, ranking first in the standings with 14 points and winning the mixed team World Cup.
Courtesy of ITTF.