Fan Zhendong wins WTT Star Contender & WR #1

Published on 09 July 2023 2 minutes 2 minutes

China’s Fan Zhendong is WTT Star Contender Ljubljana 2023 winner in Men’s Category after defeating China’s Wang Chuqin who has been dethroned of his world rank 1. In Women’s Category, Sun Yinghsa of China took the title.

Men’s Category Finals

This match was important for ranking reasons as the champion would become the new world number 1. Ofcourse, Wang would retain the title if he wins it but this was a seven set thriller. Game summary goes like this

First set was really well fought from both the players with Fan taking the set in the third deuce.
Wang Chuqin was better prepared in second set and took the set
Third set was a complete domination by Wang Chuqin where he was on top on both backhand topspins, counter topspins and third balls attacks.
Fan Zhendong started the game by taking risks and took the revenge by all out attack in this set.
Fifth set was a similar story with Wang responding better in this set. Fan took this set.
Sixth set was even till 7-7 but Wang took crucial serves better and took this set.
This final set was fantastic, Wang was looking to take the game at 8-6 but Fan Zhendong took attacking backhands which allowed him to take the championship.

Men’s Champion - Fan Zhendong 4-3 (15-13,8-11,3-11,11-4,11-7,7-11,12-10)

Women’s Category Finals

The all china final went to a seven set thriller with China’s Sun Yingsha defeating China’s Chen Meng with a 4-3 set score.

Chen Meng started really strong and dominated her opponent in the first set completely.
Sun Yingsha was able to compete in the second set but sill Chen Meng was strong in the second set.
Sun Yingsha then took all three sets from Chen Meng who looked for searching for answers in a powerful Sun Yinghsa
Chen Meng took the sixth set but still it was not enough to keep her opponent under control and Sun Yingsha finally won the seventh set and took the title.