Sun Yingsha of China in action during the women's singles semifinal match of table tennis against Hayata Hina of Japan at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Aug. 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)
China has sealed the table tennis women's singles gold after top two seeds Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng advanced to the final at Paris Olympics and another Chinese Fan Zhendong also cruised to the men's singles final.
PARIS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng, the top and second seeds in the women's singles at Paris 2024, defeated their respective opponents in the semifinals on Friday to set up an all-Chinese final.
This will be the second Chen-Sun singles final at the Olympics Games. At Tokyo 2020, Chen overcame Sun 4-2 to claim the Olympic title.
Defending champion Chen swept past Shin Yu-bin of South Korea 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 and 11-7 before Sun outclassed Hina Hayata of Japan 11-6, 11-8, 11-8 and 11-2.
Both Chen and Sun felt content with their performances in the semifinals after the matches.
Chen Meng (R) of China reacts during the women's singles semifinal match of table tennis against Shin Yubin of South Korea at the Paris 2024 on Aug. 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Wang Dongzhen)
"I stayed calm today throughout the match," said 30-year-old Chen. "In the earlier matches, I probably took a while to adjust to the rhythm of competition. I improved as the matches went on and made some changes. In the first two sets today I did quite well in that aspect and was not too passive," she added.
"The match went pretty well, whether it's in terms of tempo, or my ability to respond to problems," said Sun, 23, who took gold in the mixed doubles with her partner Wang Chuqin previously.
Sun managed to reach the singles final without dropping a set in Paris. "Through the mixed doubles and now the singles event, I've played many matches and I'm well into the momentum of competition. I hope I will have no regrets tomorrow (Saturday)," added Sun.
Sun Yingsha in action during semifinal match against Hayata Hina of Japan on Aug. 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Wang Dongzhen)
The women's singles gold medal match will take place on Saturday at the South Paris Arena 4.
"It's a great privilege to play the final again. I'll fight for my dreams. I'm definitely a different player today from three years ago," said Sun. "No matter what the result turns out to be, I'm going to give it my all."
Sun's sentiments were echoed by Chen. "I want to be able to show what I'm capable of in the gold medal match. I want to show the audience the strength of Chinese table tennis," Chen said.
Fan Zhendong (top) of China in action during the men's singles semifinal match of table tennis against Felix Lebrun of France on Aug. 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)
Also on Friday, China's Fan Zhendong claimed a straight-set victory over host favorite Felix Lebrun 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 and 11-5 to reach the men's singles final, where the second seed will face 22-year-old Truls Moregard of Sweden, who earlier eliminated the top-seeded Wang Chuqin of China in the round of 32.
"I was feeling quite confident from my win in the quarterfinal yesterday (Thursday), and I executed my plan and strategy quite well today, so I'm happy about that," said 27-year-old Fan, who survived a seven-game thriller on Thursday after managing a 4-3 comeback win over Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan.
The men's singles gold medal match will take place on Sunday. ■
