On January 14, 2025, the table tennis Oman regular challenge continued. Two Chinese men's singles players advanced to the top 16, Huang Youzheng and Chen Yuanyu passed the level, while the top four player from the previous station, Aruna, was surprisingly eliminated. In addition, Kuaiman's women's doubles narrowly defeated her teammate with a score of 3-2, avoiding another setback after the mixed doubles.
The WTT regular challenge is worth 400 points, just exceeding the 125-point branch line competition. It is not as valuable as the previous 600-point star challenge. The national table tennis team's roster has been repeatedly adjusted, and it was finally determined that 4 men's team members and 6 women's team members would participate. Qian Tianyi was replaced by Tan Yuxuan, and He Zhuojia was replaced by Wang Xiaotong.
Four men's singles players participated in the 1/16 finals. Two young players from the national table tennis team advanced first. Huang Youzheng reversed Indian player Taka with a score of 3-1, and Chen Yuanyu eliminated Portuguese player Apollonia with a score of 3-1. There are still two players left, Xiang Peng and Xu Yingbin. Among them, the 19-year-old Huang Youzheng is the champion of last year's National Championship in this event, and the 19-year-old Chen Yuanyu had outstanding performances in the Super League. It can be said that the coaching staff also wanted to train these newcomers, so they created many opportunities.
What was most unexpected was the elimination of Nigerian star Aruna. In the previous competition, Aruna advanced to the top four in the men's singles, but later lost to Zhang Ben Zhihe, leaving a deep impression on many fans. In the first round, he faced Huang Yancheng, a young player from Chinese Taipei, and the result was a miserable 0-3 defeat for Aruna. His playing style has obvious shortcomings, and his tactics are not comprehensive enough, especially his backhand is always targeted. Of course, Huang Yancheng also performed very well.
After the start of the game, in the first set, Aruna had no feel at all, allowing Huang Yancheng to take the lead with an 11-5 victory. In the second set, Aruna's state slightly recovered, but there were still many unnecessary mistakes. Huang Yancheng continued to lead and won another set with an 11-8 score. Aruna's performance was far worse than before. He didn't play out his own advantage in forehand, and he didn't expect Huang Yancheng to perform so well, especially in the mid-to-long-range standoff, where he fought hard without falling behind in quality.
In the third set, Aruna chased points after falling behind, but unfortunately missed the opportunity after a 10-all draw. He wasn't prepared for the serve rotation, and Huang Yancheng seized the opportunity to end the game with a score of 12-10. He eventually defeated Aruna 3-0. Many fans also mentioned that there is no such thing as a sure win in competitive sports. Who could have thought that Aruna would be eliminated in the first round, and even lose to Huang Yancheng, who is only ranked 65th? Although it is just a 400-point regular challenge, it is by no means easy to achieve results.
In terms of doubles, the national table tennis team encountered two internal battles. In the mixed doubles, Xiang Peng/Kuaiman lost 1-3 to Huang Youzheng/Shi Xunyao, who were the runners-up in the previous station. They lost to Matsushima Kikuo/Zhang Ben Meihuo at that time, and their cooperation effect was obviously better. In the women's doubles, Kuaiman/Chen Yi narrowly defeated Wang Xiaotong/Shi Xunyao with a score of 3-2. At the Doha Star Tournament, Kuaiman went out in the first round in both doubles events and won the singles championship. Now that the mixed doubles have been eliminated, the women's doubles passing the first round test is worth looking forward to.