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China's table tennis star Fan Zhendong
Photo: LESLIE PLAZA JOHNSON / EPA
The Chinese world-class player Fan Zhendong won individual gold at the World Table Tennis Championships for the first time in his career.
The 24-year-old clearly won the final against Timo Boll defeated Truls Mörgardh at the World Cup in Houston 4: 0 (11: 6, 11: 9, 11: 7, 11: 8).
The only 19-year-old Swede Möregardh had defeated the healthily ailing record European champion Timo Boll 4: 3 in the semifinals the day before.
Zhendong has been number one in the world rankings for a long time, but recently lost out to exceptional athlete Ma Long in the most important finals.
He lost both the 2017 World Cup final and the summer Olympic final to his compatriot, whom China had waived this time to test younger players.
For women, the title also went to China.
Wang Manyu prevailed against her doubles partner Sun Yingsha (China) with 4: 2 (11:13, 11: 7, 6:11, 11: 6, 11: 8, 17:15) and won the title for the first time.
First European double title in 30 years
The two Chinese women had previously won the women's doubles.
Manyu / Yingsha, who eliminated European champions Petrissa Solja and Shan Xiaona in the round of 16, defeated Hina Hayata / Mima Ito from Japan 3-0 (11: 9, 11: 7, 11: 8).
For the 17th time in a row, the world championship duo came from China.
Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Falck were the first European men's doubles to win gold at a World Cup since 1991.
The Swedes defeated Jang Woojin / Lim Jonghoon (South Korea) 3: 1 (11: 8, 15:13, 11:13, 12:10).
30 years ago, Peter Karlsson and Thomas von Scheele, two Swedes, had brought the title to Europe for the last time before an Asian dominance began.
aha / dpa
