Chen Meng of China reacts after scoring in the World Team Table Tennis Championships Women's final match against Miyuu Kihara in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, October 8, 2022. /CFP
China swept Japan 3-0 in the World Team Table Tennis Championships Women's final to win 22nd title of the tournament in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Saturday.
Chen Meng played the first match for China against Miyuu Kihara. Chen's backhand attacks and serves were too much for Kihara to resist and she took a quick win of 11-6 in the first game. Kihara increased her use of backhand flips in the second game, making it a tight fight. As the score reached 8-8, Chen paced up and caught her opponent by surprise. Having scored three straight points, she took the second game 11-8.
Chen still let Kihara punch first in the third game. After tying the score 6-6, Chen again tapped into her arsenal of tricks by scoring four straight points. Though Kihara cut her deficit down by two points, she lost the final counter-loop battle 8-11. China led 1-0 with this win.
Wang Manyu of China competes in the World Team Table Tennis Championships Women's final match against Mima Ito in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, October 8, 2022. /CFP
Wang Manyu played against Mima Ito in the second match. Ito's remarkable ability of changing the line of hitting gave her an early lead at the beginning of the first game, but Wang managed to keep the deficit from growing bigger then three points. After the score reached 9-9, Wang's forehand attacks put her first, bringing her an 11-9 victory.
The second game was even closer than the first one as Wang and Ito exchanged lead multiple times. As Japan's ace, Ito scored three straight points from 8-8 to tie the match 1-1. Wang enhanced her returns to Ito's serves in the third game and came up with faster and stronger hits to lead 7-4. Ito then launched a fierce counterstrike with forceful forehand hits before the score reached a 10-10 draw. In the end, Wang took the game by scoring one serve and a powerful return of Ito's serve to lead 2-1 in this match.
Wang took the offensive from the start in the fourth game, taking Ito by surprise and establishing an early lead of 7-2. This time, Ito's line-changing hits couldn't even slow Wang down before the game ended 11-5 for Wang to win this match and China to lead 2-0.
Sun Yingsha of China competes in the World Team Table Tennis Championships Women's final match against Miyu Nagasaki in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, October 8, 2022. /CFP
Sun Yingsha was China's third player to appear in the final and her opponent was Miyu Nagasaki. Though Sun had clear advantage, she was a little careless on several plays. Fortunately, it didn't keep her from winning the first game 11-7.
The second game went along with a similar scenario. When Sun was focused, she could easily build a 5-1 lead, which, however, went away soon as she kept making avoidable mistakes. After Nagasai took the opportunity to lead 6-5, Sun seemed to have woken up and scored five straight points to lead 10-6 again. This time, she didn't leave the opponent any chance to come back and sealed the deal with a fast forehand hit to take the game 11-7.
The third game was not much different. Sun attacked aggressively from the beginning and led 9-5. She then called a timeout. Though Nagasaki scored three points after the timeout, Sun shut her down at 11-8, winning the third match for China and sending the team to the victory rostrum to receive the gold medals.