Third time’s the charm for world No. 2 paddler Sun Yingsha
After losing two consecutive international finals, the third time was the charm for women's world No. 2 Sun Yingsha, who defeated compatriot Wang Yidi 4-2 (11-3, 17-15, 11-6, 7-11, 6-11, 11-8) yesterday to win the inaugural World Table Tennis (WTT) Cup Final at the OCBC Arena in Singapore.
Sun, 21, had missed out on the Olympic singles gold medal, losing to compatriot and world No. 1 Chen Meng. Last week, she was beaten by another teammate, Wang Manyu, at the World Table Tennis Championships singles final in Houston.
Sun said the key to bouncing back was to stay upbeat. She said: "You must have faith in yourself and continue looking forward. I know that there are still chances to win, but first, on the inside, I have to have confidence in myself and take each phase one step at a time while doing each step well."
Meanwhile, men's world champion Fan Zhendong won his second consecutive title with a convincing 4-1 (11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5) victory over Japanese world No. 5 Tomokazu Harimoto.
Fan, 24, was pleased with his back-to-back titles, saying: "Having won these two competitions for the first time, it feels really nice.
"At the same time, both competitions had a different vibe to them and they helped me in different ways to see clearer what I can work on from next year."
Meanwhile, WTT said in a statement that an operation staff is self-isolating after testing positive, but is feeling well with no symptoms.
"WTT has taken all the necessary counter-measures against Covid-19, therefore there was no impact on the event," it said, adding that it will keep in contact with the positive case. - LAURA CHIA
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now