Table Tennis

In a clash of the top two seeds, world No.1 Fan outplayed the first-time singles finalist 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 12-10, 11-13, 11-3. It is China's 10th straight men's singles crown in the table tennis world championships, a run dating back to 2005.

The ace paddler is part of the 11-member Indian contingent, comprising five men and six women, leaving for South Africa on Wednesday. Reeth Rishya has been making headlines for the last couple of years and recently won the women's singles title at the Petroleum inter-unit tournament in April which comprised almost all top players of the.

In the men's singles final, 22-year-old Wang Chuqin defended his title after closing out a dominant 4-0 win over double Olympic gold medalist Ma Long 12-10, 11-1, 11-8, 11-7. Both players flew out of the starting blocks at top speed, but Ma failed to capitalise on several opportunities, leaving second seed Wang enough room to race 2-0 in front.Frustrated by the opening stages of the match, Ma struggled to get back on track while Wang remained focused and approached each point with excellent balance to inch closer to victory, reports Xinhua.

The first men's singles semi finals match saw Sharat Kamal (IOCL) lose his first game against talented youngster Ankur Bhattachajee 11-6. But then he reminded himself to stick to basics and made a few mistakes to win the next 4 games 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 and 11-8 to win his match 4-1 in the best of 7 games format being followed.

Season 4 is scheduled to be played in Pune from July 13 to 30 at the Balewadi Sports Complex. The franchise-based league, which is promoted by Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani under the auspices of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), is returning after a three-year break following the Covid-19 pandemic.

As per the players' list unveiled for the mega event on Wednesday, the Indians who have qualified in men's singles are seasoned Sharath Kamal Achanta, G Sathiyan and Manush Shah while 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Reeth Tennison have made the grade.

The Indians had a poor start as they conceded the first two games by identical (9-11) margins. Manika and Sathiyan fought back by winning seven consecutive points as they took the third game 11-8 and took the equation to 2-1. They carried the momentum into the fourth game and clinched it 11-5 to force a decider.