SHANDONG WEIHAI, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The 2022 China Table Tennis Club Super League decided the championship on the 11th, the men's and women's team finals in five sets, Shandong Luneng team won the title twice.
Ma Long's Shandong Luneng men's team faced Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin's Shanghai Real Estate Group team in the final. In the first doubles match, Yuan Lizen/Ma Long narrowly defeated Xu Xin/Fan Zhendong 3:2, with Shandong Luneng taking the first city. The second set also went to a tiebreaker. Xu Yingbin of Shandong Luneng defeated Zhou Kai 3:2. In the third set, Ma Long and Fan Zhendong had a strong conversation with Fan winning 3:1. Xu Xin then beat Xu Yingbin 3:1 to help the Shanghai Real Estate Group team level the score at 2:2. In the final, Yuan Lizen defeated Zhou Kai 3:1 to seal the victory for Shandong Luneng.
Both sides in the women's final featured many national team mainstays, with Shandong Luneng having Wang Manyu and Chen Xingtong, and Olympic champions Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha leading the Shenzhen University team.
The final was also very intense. Qian Tianyi/Chen Xing beat Sun Yizhen/Chen Meng 3:0, Shandong Luneng team flagged off. In the second set, Sun Yingsha beat Wang Manyu 3:1, and the two teams returned to the same starting line. From there, Chen Xingtong beat Chen Meng 3:1 and Sun Yingsha beat Qian Tianyi 3:0 as the two teams were tied at the end of the first four sets. In the fifth-set tiebreaker, Wang Manyu beat Sun Yizhen in straight sets to help Shandong Luneng win the women's team title.
"The three players on the court gave it their all, including those who didn't play, and the whole team came together to win the championship. The most important thing today was the doubles and the third match." Wang Manyu laughed that she was "hugging her thighs."
"Team racing is really different than individual racing. Everyone's strength is together. That unity makes the championship more meaningful." Chen Xingtong said.
This season's Table Tennis Super League opened in Weihai on the 3rd of this month with a total of 15 men's and women's teams taking part in the tournament. After the first stage of the round-robin tournament, the top four men's and women's teams entered the second stage of the knockout tournament.
