You can hurt yourself: Sun Yingsha
Basically it was a good year for the DTTB and its professionals. At the Mixed World Cup in Chengdu (China), the mixed German team won the decisive bronze game against South Korea with the very last set (8:7), making them once again the best non-Asian team. In the individual competitions, Dang Qiu finally showed improving form in the fall: he won the tournament in London and reached the final in Frankfurt am Main. Sabine Winter was able to continue her run into the top 20 among women, and Annett Kaufmann also made the next steps and made a good impression at the World Cup.
And yet: At the end of the season in Hong Kong, which ended on Sunday, the two German men were on the return flight straight after the first game: Qiu lost, and Benedikt Duda’s first-round plague also continued. He is obviously considering concentrating entirely on the international circus next year and giving up his Bundesliga career. Whether that will achieve anything is another matter. Hugo Calderano, who was in the form of his life in the spring, also became increasingly weaker towards the end of the year, even though he had not played any league games for six months.
The women had no chance to shine in Hong Kong: the top 16 were purely Asian. For Sabine Winter the tournament probably came two or three months too early. Let’s see whether she can continue to establish herself at the top or whether a yo-yo effect of her anti-base game can be expected. The semi-finals at the “WTT Finals” in Hong Kong, as the season-ending tournament is officially called, were purely Chinese for the women. And if Sun Yingsha, the dominator of the scene, hadn’t had to give up her semi-final due to injury, there would probably have been a final between her, number one, and number two. The number two, Wang Manyu, took advantage of her chance and won the final quite easily against Kuai Man with 4:2 sets.
The men’s field is more balanced, there were a few surprises. One of them was that Wang Chuqin, the number one, also had to withdraw in the semi-finals due to an injury. Yes, the world table tennis calendar is now jam-packed and the first athletes are paying their tribute. Even the Chinese ones.
The beneficiary of Wang’s task was the Swede Truls Möregårdh, who, like Calderano, had an excellent season – he was denied the crowning glory because the mentality monster Tomokazu Harimoto was waiting for him in the final. The final saw a long back and forth, but it became clear early on that the Japanese had a slightly better finish: he brought back balls that no one had expected and killed every rally as soon as the chance arose. It was a high-class match – in the end, even Möregårdh’s use of tricks was of no use. Harimoto deservedly won 4:2.
Even before that, he had eliminated everything that wanted to go up: the furious Frenchman Félix Lebrun, who was also better than ever at the end of the year (4:3), and in the semifinals the last Chinese Lin Shidong, who was class leader in Hong Kong in 2024 (also 4:3). In this respect, the »WTT Finals« also had a deserved winner among the men. It was once again a tournament of real caliber. There was high-class table tennis across the board. The top men’s rankings have moved closer together, at least up to twelfth place. Wang has also suffered a few defeats this year, including against Harimoto. It remains to be seen whether he can continue to hold his own at the top.
But now it’s a break. Which in Germany is filled with the Bundesliga and the cup. Hopefully the professionals will be able to relax a bit in between. The next top-class tournament in the »Champions« category starts in Doha at the end of January. Except for Wang Chuqin, everyone is there again, the women’s top ten even complete. Well, it’s going to be a celebration.
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