On January 15, 2025, a major upset occurred at the WTT Muscat station in table tennis. A renowned Chinese men's singles player lost 1-3 to a 16-year-old newcomer, and Chinese Taipei's rising star Guo Guanhong eliminated two-time World Youth Championship men's singles champion Xiang Peng, who was seeded fourth but stopped in the round of 16. No one expected him to fall at this stage. Xiang Peng is 20 years old and ranked 22nd in the world. As a young player focused on by the national table tennis coaching staff, he has been considered outstanding among his peers, with generally satisfactory results. However, his progress has been slow, and he has not been able to reach higher stages. At the previous WTT Star Tournament in Doha, Xiang Peng partnered with Xu Yingbin to win the men's doubles championship in the final against Tomokazu Ishihara/Koki Niwa. However, he was eliminated in the men's singles by Koki Niwa. This time, Xiang Peng had good luck in the draw, facing Guo Guanhong, a 16-year-old newcomer from Chinese Taipei, who has not participated in adult group events for long and is only ranked 216th in the world. Originally, fans of the national table tennis team thought there would be no problem, but an issue arose, making him the second top-four seed to exit after Aruna. After the start of the match, in the first game, Xiang Peng initially played well, fully utilizing his advantage in forehand and slightly dominating during the rallies. Guo Guanhong is only 16 years old, and the quality of his…

The WTT Doha Star Challenge is nearing its conclusion, with the Singapore Grand Slam event set to begin soon. As a result, the main participants in this Doha challenge are non-mainstream players from the national table tennis team. However, it must be acknowledged that the strength displayed by these young players has been quite surprising, truly eye-catching. In this round of five events, our national table tennis players successfully won the men's doubles championship title, with Xiang Peng and Xu Yingbin performing outstandingly, defeating Tomokazu Ishihara and Kakeru Matsumoto. In the women's doubles event, He Zhuojia and Zhong Ge Man unfortunately failed to defeat their opponents, losing to Miharu Igarashi and Sakura Yokoi, ultimately earning the runner-up honor for this challenge. Today will determine the champions of the women's singles, men's singles, and mixed doubles events. [Chen Yi vs. Miyuu Kihara] In the semi-finals, Chen Yi surprisingly defeated Qian Tianyi with a score of 3:0, a result that shocked many fans. It should be noted that when national table tennis players compete, they cannot simply rely on world rankings to judge victory or defeat; the key is to observe the actual strength displayed on the court. After all, they train together every day and are very familiar with each other. Taking Qian Tianyi as an example, her teammates know her inside out. Moreover, Chen Yi stands at 177cm tall, giving her an excellent wingspan that is not inferior even to Wang Manyu, resulting in remarkable defensive capabilities. During the match, Miyuu Kihara primarily relied on her rubber hitting and connection…

The grand finale of the WTT Doha Star Challenge in 2025 has concluded, with four champions already crowned. Team China emerged victorious in the women's singles and men's doubles, while Japan secured titles in the women's doubles and mixed doubles. In the women's doubles final, Daiki Oshima/Sakura Yokoi defeated Zhuo Jia He/Zong Ge Man 3-0 (11-2, 12-10, 11-9). The men's doubles final saw Xiang Peng/Xu Yingbin edge out Tomokazu Harimoto/Kakeru Matsumoto 3-2 (15-13, 4-11, 11-8, 11-13, 11-6). The mixed doubles final was a close match, with Kakeru Matsumoto/Miharu Tomokazu overcoming Huang Youzheng/Shi Xunyao 3-2 (6-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7). In the women's singles final, Kuai Man dominated Miu Kihara 4-0 (11-6, 11-3, 11-8, 11-3). The last event to be decided was the men's singles final, where Tomokazu Harimoto faced off against Danish star Groth. This time, Team China did not send their main players, with Xiang Peng and Huang Youzheng achieving the best result of reaching the round of 16. Groth played well, maintaining a good rhythm and balance on both sides. He reached his first-ever Star Challenge final after defeating Japanese rising star Daiki Oshima in the semifinals. Harimoto was in top form, advancing strongly throughout the tournament and sweeping Aruna in the semifinals. The match started with a tight 3-3 scoreline, with both players focusing on the first three shots and rarely going beyond that. Midway through the game, Groth led 6-4 but suffered from receiving errors and mistakes, allowing Harimoto to catch up at 6-6. The score remained close until the end, when Harimoto took control and…

The singles quarter-finals of the WTT Doha Star Match have all been determined, but surprisingly, none of the four Chinese men's singles players managed to advance to the quarter-finals, with two of them failing to even reach the round of 16. Although the purpose of this WTT Doha Star Match was to train newcomers, such poor results still made fans realize the extremely weak echelon strength of the Chinese men's team, especially after Fan Zhendong and Ma Long withdrew from the world rankings and WTT events. Currently, among the new players of the national table tennis team, perhaps the only hope is on Lin Shidong. It should be noted that Liu Guoliang previously mentioned in an interview with CCTV that the first year (2025) is precisely the year for training newcomers, but with such a foundation, who can ultimately step up? It's worth considering. In this WTT Doha Star Match, the national table tennis team originally sent out five promising newcomers to compete, but due to Zhou Qihao's sudden injury and forced withdrawal, the hopes for the men's singles were placed on the remaining four players. Among these four, the one considered to have the greatest chance of winning the championship is 23-year-old Xu Yingbin. So far, Xu Yingbin has successively defeated all the main players within the national table tennis team, including Wang Chuqin, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan, Lin Shidong, and world champion Xu Xin. However, Xu Yingbin was unexpectedly eliminated in the qualifying round by South Korean player Zhao Shengmin with a score of…

Sun Yingsha and Wang Yidi's draw results are really disappointing, but after seeing Zhang Benzhihe's position, my psychological balance was instantly restored. There are two groups of male and female players, each drawn into one half of the bracket. In other words, our hope of winning both the championship and runner-up has disappeared. Let's start with the women's doubles. Originally, in this event, Guoping (National Table Tennis Team) still had a significant advantage. Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu's "Seafood Sisters" once dominated the women's doubles for a long time. Chen Meng and Wang Yidi's combination also won the women's doubles championship, and Wang Manyu and Chen Meng's Olympic combination were invincible. However, the current situation is that these three pairs have all disappeared due to various reasons. The highest-ranked doubles pair in Guoping is Chen Xingtong and Qian Tianyi, while the newly formed pair of Sun Yingsha and Wang Yidi ranks at the bottom among eight pairs. As soon as I see Sun Yingsha and Wang Yidi, I feel like complaining. I really don't understand the purpose and significance of this move. How can these two be the women's doubles partners for the Los Angeles Olympics? Back to the game, Sun Yingsha and Wang Yidi's first-round opponents are Sato Miu and Hashimoto Honoka, a double chopping pair with an extremely bizarre playing style. If we talk about singles, Shasha and Dadi can win no matter how they play, but in the doubles arena, it's hard to say what the outcome will be. Chen Xingtong and Qian Tianyi, this pair won…