Table tennis powerhouse China swept both the singles titles at the WTT Star Contender Goa, with world No. 4 Wang Yidi brushing aside Chinese Taipei’s world No. 31 Cheng-I-Ching 4-0 (11-6 11-6 11-8 11-4) in a 37-minute demolition in Panaji on Sunday.
This was also Wang’s second consecutive WTT Star Contender title after her win in Budapest in July last year.
Wang’s win confirmed the singles sweep as the men’s singles was an all-Chinese affair with world No. 7 Liang Jingkun beating 17-year-old Lin Shidong 4-2 (11-6 9-11 10-12 12-10 12-10 11-9) in the best-of-seven final.
Cheng was simply outclassed by Yang in the women’s singles final.
“Overall, I feel really nice to take part in this tournament and win it,” said Wang.
The men’s final was a complete contrast to the women’s summit clash with no quarters given by the opponents.
Liang took the first game, but the younger Lin came back strongly to take the next two and looked the favourite to take the match when he led 7-2 in the fourth.
However, Liang dug deep and used all his experience to claw back and take the game at 12-10.
The teenager led for most of the fifth game as well, but Liang seemed to be on a mission and won 12-10. Liang was simply too strong on the day and won the sixth game 11-9 to seal the title.
“He (Liang) is a very important part of the Chinese team and hopefully in the future also he will be a very important player for China,” said Lin after losing the match.
The Japanese pair of Miyu Nagasaki and Miwa Harimoto won the women’s doubles, defeating the Chinese Taipei pair of Cheng and Li Yu-Jhun 11-9 11-7 11-6).
The Korean pair of An Jaehyun and Cho Seungmin took the men’s doubles crown with the pair beating Japan’s Shunsuke Togami and Yukiya Uda 3-1 (11-3 9-11 12-10 11-4).