WTT Singapore Smash: China’s Wang Chuqin on track, Hong Kong coach defends routed players
City’s head coach Li Ching says Hong Kong’s results are ‘within’ expectations despite no players getting past first round in singles
Two of China’s younger generation fell at the World Table Tennis Singapore Smash on Tuesday, but the mainland’s big guns remained on course for the latter stages.
World No 1 men’s player Wang Chuqin and No 4 Liang Jingkun, as well as leading women’s stars Wang Manyu and Chen Xingtong, all enjoyed victories at Singapore Sports Hub.
Wang Chuqin dispatched the host city’s Koen Pang with ease in a 3-0 win, while Liang recovered from a 2-0 deficit to outlast Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov 3-2 and set up a round-of-16 tie with another German, Ricardo Walther.
On the wrong end of results was 19-year-old Huang Youzheng, who lost 3-2 to another German, Patrick Franziska. Earlier, Chen Yuanyu, also 19, headed home after being defeated by South Korea’s world No 13 Jang Woo-jin. Three tight games meant the 3-0 scoreline did not tell the whole story.
In the women’s singles, all seven Chinese players were still in the hunt.