▲ Yonhap News
[스포티비뉴스=박대현 기자] Chinese fans are constantly complaining about this year’s World Table Tennis (WTT) King of Kings.
Wang Man-yu, ranked second in the world in women’s singles, defeated Kuai Man (China, ranked fourth in the world) 4-2 (11-7 8-11 11-8 11-8 9-11 12-10) in the final of the WTT Hong Kong Finals 2025 held in Hong Kong on the 14th, and achieved her second consecutive victory in the tournament.
Wang Man-yu defeated Miwa Harimoto (Japan), Chu Chen-hee (Korea), and Chen Yu (China) in order in the round of 16 of the tournament to reach the finals. On this day, she even turned around the sign of China’s next generation and rose to the top of the women’s singles.
In the quarterfinals, he defeated Joo Chun-hee 4-1, continuing his status as a ‘Korean table tennis nemesis’ by recording all 45 wins in Korea.
▲ Screenshot of ‘Sohu’ homepage
However, the Chinese men’s singles bowed down. For the first time since the launch of the 2021 Finals, we experienced the indignity of not being able to produce a finalist.
On this day, the final day of the competition, the men’s singles semifinals and finals were held one after another. Lin Shidong (China, world No. 2) lost 3-4 in the semifinals to Tomokazu Harimoto (Japan, world No. 5) after a fierce battle in the full game.
Defending champion Wang Chuqin (China, world No. 1) withdrew from the semifinals against Truls Moregor (Sweden, world No. 4) due to injury.
In the end, Japanese star Harimoto defeated Moregor 4-2 in the finals and collected his first career finals trophy.
This year’s finals attracted attention in the table tennis world as the world’s top ranked men’s and women’s singles players failed to reach the finals.
Not only Wang Chuqin, but also Sun Yingsha (China), the number one player in women’s singles, injured her ankle in the singles semifinals and threw in the white towel during the 5th set.
Even in the mixed finals, which was played in a situation where the team was not at 100% physical condition, they lost 0-3 to Korea’s team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin, and ended up with no match.
China’s ‘Sohu’ wrote on the 15th, “The finals are over, but the topic surrounding the stadium and outside is still abundant. For example, while there are fans who are happy for Wang Man-yu’s second consecutive victory, there are also quite a few fans who express disappointment toward Sun Ying-sha.”
“While many fans are questioning the tight match schedule of the WTT, some are also pointing out another problem: the Chinese national team’s ‘excessive use’ of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha,” he said, pointing out that the aftershocks from the Hong Kong issue on the Great Wall of China are still significant.
In fact, on Chinese social networking sites (SNS), criticism is often seen asking whether it is a sound decision for the country’s table tennis world to allow Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin to play doubles as well.
It is argued that in table tennis, where singles are the key, forcing Sun Yingsha to play five games in 27 hours was detrimental to the competition for the championship. This opinion received sympathy from many fans.
Colleagues in the industry also raised their voices. Du Kai-qin, who competed for Hong Kong at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, said, “The WTT Finals is the last competition to conclude the year, and as a player, I was really heartbroken to see Sun Ying-sha and Wang Chu-qin withdraw due to injuries one after another. I can’t imagine how tired they must be. Even though I was eliminated early, it was very difficult. They always go to the end and compete in multiple events at the same time,” criticizing the way the WTT competition is run.
“There are too many competitions now, so when one ends, another follows. There may not even be enough time to train. Next year’s schedule will likely be similarly tight, so you need to manage yourself well,” he said, arguing that a balanced schedule that takes into account the players’ physical condition will be the basis for presenting exciting games to fans.
