The 2023 World Table Tennis Junior Championships are in full swing in Slovenia. The tournament consists of two age groups, U15 and U19, with seven individual competitions in each age group, including men's and women's team, men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles. Among them, the singles competition in the U19 age group has attracted much attention from all parties, as the two rising stars of the Chinese national table tennis team, Lin Shidong and Kuo Man, lead the competition.
At present, the high-profile U19 singles draw has been revealed, and Lin Shidong and Kuo Man are the first seeded players in the men's and women's singles respectively, and are the favorites to win the championship. At last year's World Youth Championships, the then 17-year-old Lin Shidong performed well, sweeping the U19 men's team, men's singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles championships, completing the great cause of winning the World Youth Championships four times!
Compared with Lin Shidong's outstanding performance, China's national women's table tennis Kuo Man left regrets last year. She lost 1-4 to Japan's Miyu Kihara in the U19 Women's Singles semi-finals and missed the final.
It is worth mentioning that in the other U19 women's singles semi-final, Chinese player Chen Yi lost 3-4 to the then 14-year-old Japanese player Miwa Zhangmoto, thus allowing the Japanese women's team to win the championship and runner-up of the U19 women's singles. 14-year-old Zhang Benmei participated in the cross-age group, and became famous because of it!
A year has passed, and Miwa Zhang did not register for this year's World Junior Championships, mainly due to the conflict between the Japanese Olympic Trials and the World Junior Championships. The 15-year-old Miwa Harimoto won the women's singles championship in the Olympic selection of the Japanese national table tennis team that ended on November 26. She defeated Hina Hayata, the absolute first person in the current Japanese women's table tennis, 4-2 in the final, bringing a huge shock to the Japanese table tennis world!
The sudden rise of Zhang Benmeihe has made Chinese fans have to reflect on the young players in the national table tennis team. At present, there are no significant talent candidates for young players around the age of 15 in the Chinese national men's and women's table tennis teams, so the talent gap has become an important problem facing the national table tennis team.
To sum up, this makes people have higher expectations for this World Junior Championships. If you want to gain a foothold in the national table tennis team or even stand out, you first need to prove yourself in the World Youth Championships and win the trust of the national table tennis coaching staff through the scores one by one.
Lin Shidong, who shined in the World Youth Championships last year, has been trained by the national table tennis team this year and has participated in many international competitions. Although his overall performance is still lacking, he is still very young after all, and he is a new star with great potential in the national table tennis team.
Let's take a look at the U19 singles draw for this year's World Junior Championships. First up is the men's singles, with world No. 9 Lin Shidong defending the men's singles zone 1 4 as the men's singles seed, and her first-round opponent is Hong Kong's Chan Ho-wah, who is ranked 146th in the world. With Lin Shidong's current competitive state, it is not difficult to defeat the opponent in the first round.
But in the next 1 8 finals, Lin Shidong is very likely to meet Singapore's 18-year-old rising star Guo Yong. The player made a splash at this year's Singapore Open, winning three games in a row when facing world champion and Sweden's Falke in the Men's Singles 1 16 final, including saving two match points and completing the comeback when he was 8-10 down in the deciding game.
Therefore, Guo Yong's strength should not be underestimated. If Lin Shidong plays Guo Yong in the top 8, it will be a huge challenge. In addition, there is also South Korea's 17-year-old rising star Oh Hyun-sung, who is the son of South Korea's star Oh Sang-yin, who also has some strength;Japan's Teruku Matsushima is also in this zone.
In Zone 2 4, Chinese Taipei's 18-year-old rising star Gao Chengrui is eyeing the world's 32nd, behind Lin Shidong. It can be seen that it is still very difficult for Lin Shidong to break out of the encirclement from the upper half of the district.
There is also a player in the Chinese national table tennis men's singles U19 age group, Wen Ruibo. He is only 16 years old and ranked 118th in the world. As a 15-year-old last year, Wen Ruibo won the National Junior Championships and has since opened the door to the national team, and subsequently won the Under-15 men's team title at the World Junior Championships.
This year, Wen participated in the U19 Men's Singles at the WTT Junior Belgian Spa Regular Challenge. Completed the comeback after falling behind 0-2 in the round of 8;Later, he won the U17 men's singles championship in Metz, France. These experiences have been good training for him.
At this World Youth Championships, 16-year-old Wen Ruibo will face a greater challenge in the U19 men's singles. The first round opponent was 19-year-old Puerto Rico's Naranjo. Notably, in the recently concluded Portugal Open, the player defeated China's 24-year-old Cao Wei 3-2 in the first round of the main event.
It can be seen that Wen Ruibo will face a strong opponent in the first game. His performance is highly anticipated!In addition, in the lower half of the men's singles, there is also an Australian-Chinese player Lin Wenzheng, ranked 33rd in the world. Wen Ruibo wants to fight from the bottom half, and it is also very difficult, and I look forward to the surprise of this young player to Chinese fans!
Next, let's look at the U19 Women's Singles. As the No. 1 seed in the tournament, Kuaiman met Japan's 18-year-old rookie Haruna Koshio in the first round. The latter is a player with a special style of play. If Kuo Man wants to enter the main lineup of national table tennis, he must first pass the test of this special style of play. So this game is extremely important for her.
Another player in the Chinese U19 women's singles is 18-year-old Xu Yi, ranked 77th in the world. She was placed in Zone 3 4, along with the tournament's second seed, 15-year-old rising star Nina from Egypt.
However, if Xu Yi and Nina want to fight directly, they need to win two games in a row. Looking forward to the young player Xu Yi can have an excellent performance!
All in all, the U19 singles event at this World Junior Championships is still attracting a lot of attention, because of the participation of two rising Chinese stars, Lin Shidong and Kuo Man. I look forward to them all having an outstanding performance and winning glory for Chinese table tennis abroad!
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