On March 28, 2022, Beijing time, the WTT Doha Star Challenge ended on the first day of competition. The national table tennis performed well in the men's singles field, and all 5 players advanced to the round of 32. In the women's singles field, Zhang Rui played 11-1 and strongly advanced to the round of 32, and the young player Ziffy also continued the recent good state. However, Fan Siqi, Qian Tianyi, and Liu Weishan have been out one after another, and the difficulty of women's singles to compete for the title has greatly increased.
In the first round of men's singles, Liu Dingshuo, Yuan Licen and Zhao Zihao, who finally appeared, all won. Liu Dingshuo eliminated Ionescu 3-1, Yuan Lichen eliminated a host player 3-0, and Cho Zihao eliminated South Korea's Ahn Jae-hyun 3-1. The match between Zhao Zihao and An Zaixian belongs to a strong dialogue, after all, An Zaixian once reached the men's singles final four in the World Table Tennis Championships, but Zhao Zihao did not give him much opportunity to comprehensively suppress his opponents and achieve a beautiful victory. Zhao Zihao has always been known as Xu Xin's successor, and it is indeed time to make achievements.
In this way, all 5 members of the national table tennis team ranked in the men's singles round of 32. Next, Yuan Lichen played against Francesca, Zhou Qihao against Freitas, Zhao Zihao against Zhuang Zhiyuan, Liu Dingshuo against Aruna, and another straight-boarder against Dako Jochik. Every game is a strong dialogue, the opponent is strong, I hope our players let go and strive to continue to move forward.
In the women's singles field, the national table tennis performance was average, 5 people played in the main game, only 2 people advanced, Fan Siqi, Qian Tianyi, Liu Weishan were out successively. Fan Siqi, who had previously won the regular challenge, failed to continue her strength, and she lost 2-3 to Japan's Miyu Kato, suffering a round of the main game. Qian Tianyi was affected by injuries, losing 2-3 to Batlla. Liu Weishan led twice, still losing 2-3 to Japan's Mizu Nagasaki.
Only 2 people in the national table tennis team advanced to the women's singles round of 32, namely Qi Fei and Zhang Rui. Young player Ziffy is in good shape, eliminating Germany's Winter 3-1 and playing against Yang Xiaoxin in the next round. Zhang Rui scored a 11-1 disparity, and finally eliminated Shao Jieni 3-1, and the winning Zhang Rui will face Germany's Solja in the next round.
Obviously, the women's singles competition is particularly difficult, Zhang Rui and Qi Fei are in the second half, and the best result is that the two will meet in the semi-finals. In addition, the opponent's strength is strong, in addition to several Japanese players, there are also seed players such as Du Kaixuan, Zheng Yijing, Tian Zhixi, etc., which is indeed a huge test for the two national table tennis players. I hope that Zhang Rui and Qi Fei will give it a go, no matter what the results are, at least they can play their best level and leave no regrets!