India is truly a magical country, including table tennis.
Which athlete is the hottest in the international table tennis world recently?
It is none other than the Indian female player Akula.
June 23 WTT Challenger Lagos, Akula's Results:
1, women's singles champion, defeated 16-year-old Chinese teenager Ding Yijie in the final;
2. Women's doubles champion, partnered with Camas 3-0 teammates Chitale/Gol Lampard.
With this result, Akula moved up 19 places to 24th in the world rankings.
However, Akula did not continue his hot streak and was eliminated in the first round of singles in Tunisia on June 27.
There are wins and losses in the international arena, which is not magical, the reason why it is said to be magical is related to a number.
Which number? Look down.
Akula's style of play is strange and strange, and he once won an upset against Sun Yingsha, which is one of the few foreign losses in the Paris cycle.
So, who did Akula lose this time?
It's a Japanese player: Kasumi Kimura. The score was 2-3, and the game was played in five games (8-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 9-11)
Judging from the score, Akula lost two games in a row as soon as he came up, which shows that Kimura Kasumi is not afraid of Akula at all. Normally, the first one or two rounds of an encounter with a granular player would be awkward, but Kajun Kimura is not, as if it was fine.
This also seems to be magical.
Who is Kasumi Kimura? Many people may not be familiar with this name, but it is this Kimura Kasumi who defeated Ito Misei 3-2 at this year's Japan National Championships, which directly led to Ito's failure to participate in the Paris Olympics singles, and Ito Misei was blown up with a score of 0-7, 2-8 in the tiebreaker, and Kimura Kasumi also entered the Japanese national team in April this year.
Speaking of which, it is no accident that Akula lost to Kasumi Kimura. Ito's backhand belongs to granules (raw rubber), which shows that Kimura Kasumi has experience in hitting granules and is not afraid of granules at all.
Some Chinese netizens who watched the game summarized the following points:
1, Kimura Kasumi was able to win Ito in the big exam, and this time he won Akula, and he was in a very divine state.
2. It's not how strong Kasumi Kimura is, but that Indian players are gods, they can win first-class players (Sun Yingsha), and they can upset third-rate players.
Netizens defined Kasumi Kimura as a third-rate player.
3. Akula won the last stop, and this stop is a round tour, and the so-called 100% win rate of WTT participation is also old.
4. Kajun Kimura won, with a score of 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9 in 5 games, and it was not easy to win.
Next, let's talk about the so-called "magic number"
This is not what I summarized, but also what Chinese netizens summarized.
The magic number is: 24
Chinese netizens looked at the data and came to a conclusion: the Indian player has a strange fate with 24.
Ghanasekaran, Batra, and Akula, three well-known Indian players, have all reached 24 in the world ranking, but they can't move up again, which seems to have become a "curse" on the Indian players.
Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe India is at this level at the moment.
But one thing is also magical.
The Chinese master disdained to participate in the low-level WTT event, giving the Indian player a chance, so India became the biggest winner (triple crown) in the last stop, but with the Chinese master participating in the game, the Indian team was able to upset the win to disrupt the game, and also blocked Wang Manyu from the singles goal in Paris. Magical, you say, isn't it magical?