“Lim Jong-hoon’s backhand was fast and was a big threat. Also, the switching (change) of the direction of his shot made it very difficult for me.”
Pan Zhendong (26, China), the world’s strongest in table tennis men’s singles. This is what he said in a media interview after being scolded by left-handed Korean left-handed ace Lim Jong-hoon (26, Korea Exchange) in the semifinals of the men’s singles at the ‘2023 World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions Xinxiang’ held in Xinxiang, Henan Province, China on the 14th (local time). .먹튀검증
World No. 1 Pan Zhendong faced 13th place Lim Jong-hoon on the day, and after a close match of 1 hour and 53 minutes, he lost 4-3 (11-8. 11-6, 5-11, 12-10, 8-11, 6-11, 11). -9) and won a new victory.
“I think my opponent played very well today. But in fact I expected it to be very difficult. I may have done well in the first two sets, but I messed up a bit in the third set. My receive wasn’t strict enough. We reorganized in the 7th set, and started from zero.”
After the game, WTT evaluated Lim Jong-hoon as a “valiant challenger” through social media. Although Lim Jong-hoon was blocked by the Great Wall of China and could not make it to the final, he showed the bitter taste of Korean table tennis.
In the final held on the afternoon of the 15th, Pan Zhendong, who defeated Lim Jong-hoon, beat Liang Jingkun (26), 7th in the same country, 4-1 (15-13, 12-10, 11-5, 7-11, 11-8). became the champion.
In the women’s singles final, where the Chinese players faced each other again, world No. 1 Sun Yingxia (22) defeated No. ) and climbed to the top.
The WTT Champions is a tournament in which 32 top ranked players in the world participate in the men’s and women’s singles event to determine the champion. Following this tournament, the ‘2023 WTT Champions Macau’ will be held again in Macau from the 17th to the 23rd. kkm100@sportsseoul.com