China's Men Suffer Historic Wipeout at Yokohama Table Tennis Championships
Crhk · 2 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago1 MIN
Summary
China's men's table tennis team suffered a historic collapse at the WTT Yokohama Champions tournament, with all four entrants eliminated before the quarterfinals . Xiang Peng lost to Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto in straight games, while Chen Yuanyu fell to South Korea's Jang Woo-jin, both in the round of 16 . This marked the first time the Chinese men's team has failed to reach the last eight in back-to-back WTT 1000+ tournaments .
Key Points
- Xiang Peng lost 7-11, 8-11, 8-11 to Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto in the round of 16 .
- Chen Yuanyu was defeated 3-0 by South Korea's Jang Woo-jin at the same stage .
- Zhou Qihao and Wen Ruibo were eliminated in the first round, while Lin Shidong fell in the second round .
- Wang Chuqin, the top-ranked player, also lost in the round of 16 .
- France's Alexis Lebrun came from behind to beat Slovenia's Darko Jorgic and will face Harimoto in the quarterfinals .
Why It Matters
The unprecedented men's failure places greater pressure on the women's team to salvage national pride at a tournament where China has traditionally dominated . For Hong Kong viewers following the sport, this result signals a potential shift in global table tennis balance, with Japan and South Korea emerging as genuine threats to China's long-standing supremacy.
The unprecedented men's failure places greater pressure on the women's team to salvage national pride at a tournament where China has traditionally dominated . For Hong Kong viewers following the sport, this result signals a potential shift in global table tennis balance, with Japan and South Korea emerging as genuine threats to China's long-standing supremacy.