On January 12, 2025, the Oman Table Tennis Challenge kicked off. In the women's singles group stage, the national table tennis team suffered a defeat in their debut match, with 18-year-old rookie Zhong Ge Man losing 1-3 to her 17-year-old opponent Ye Yitan. Whether they can advance to the main draw will depend on their performance in the second match.
Three members of the national table tennis team need to participate in the singles qualifying matches: Xu Yingbin and Huang Youzheng in men's singles, and Zhong Ge Man in women's singles. Fans may recall that Xu Yingbin was eliminated early in the previous event, defeated by South Korean player Zhao Shengmin. Now, whether there will be any improvement is undoubtedly a focus for fans. Of course, Huang Youzheng and Zhong Ge Man are also worth our anticipation. Although 18-year-old Zhong Ge Man is only ranked 81st, she almost caused an upset against Szu Yen Shih at the star match.
It should be noted that this station is officially known as the regular challenge match in Muscat because it is held in Oman. Many fans refer to it as the Oman match, which seamlessly connects with the Doha star match challenge. The level is one step lower, with the champion's points dropping from 600 to 400. The national table tennis team's lineup has been slightly adjusted, with Qian Tianyi and He Zhuojia returning to participate in training, and new additions Tan Yu Xuan and Wang Xiaotong, while other players remain unchanged. Zhou Qihao withdrew from the competition due to injury long ago.
The qualifying matches use a round-robin group system. Zhong Ge Man was assigned to Group 5 of the women's singles, along with Chinese Taipei player Ye Yitan and Slovakian player Kukulova. Among them, Ye Yitan is only 17 years old and previously defeated South Korean veteran Zhu Qianxi. She has not played against the national table tennis team many times, so everyone is relatively unfamiliar with her. In fact, Ye Yitan was active in the youth group before and only started registering for the adult group in recent years, with a world ranking of 189th.
After the start of the match, in the first game, Zhong Ge Man led 6-3 but was reversed, with Ye Yitan taking the lead 11-7. Zhong Ge Man was not very adaptable to Ye Yitan's serve and lacked strategies in the first three boards. Originally, everyone thought this match would not be difficult, but the opponent's performance exceeded expectations. In the second game, Zhong Ge Man's state did not improve significantly, and Ye Yitan took advantage of the situation to win another game 11-6. The national table tennis team's off-court guidance was helpless.
In the third game, Zhong Ge Man decided to go all out, instead of being as tense as in the previous two games. She played several good shots in the rally and returned the favor with an 11-3 victory. In the fourth game, Ye Yitan led 5-3, and Zhong Ge Man's timeout did not have any effect. It was still due to insufficient preparation before the match and lack of understanding of the opponent's situation. Ye Yitan seized the opportunity and ended the match with an 11-5 victory, ultimately winning 3-1 against Zhong Ge Man and securing her first victory in the group stage.
With Zhong Ge Man's 1-3 loss to Ye Yitan, the national table tennis team did not perform well in their first match at the Oman Challenge. Zhong Ge Man and Ye Yitan will still face Kukulova in another match. If Zhong Ge Man wins and Ye Yitan loses, there is still hope for advancement. In short, the initiative is no longer in their own hands.