WTT Finals Women Nagoya 2023: Sun Yingsha completes singles hat-trick after winning doubles
Having won the doubles with Wang Manyu an hour earlier, 'ShaSha' defeated Wang Yidi 4-2 to remain the only women's singles player to take the season-ending tournament since its inception in 2021.
Table Tennis
Sun Yingsha showed why she is the undisputed world number one in table tennis by taking the WTT Finals Women title in Nagoya, Japan on Sunday (17 December).
The 23-year-old from the People's Republic of China defeated compatriot Wang Yidi 4-2 (12-10, 11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-7) to make it three wins out of three in the season-ending tournament since its inception in 2021.
Wang won when the pair last met in October's WTT Champions Frankfurt, and she had two points to take the opening game at 10-8.
But 'ShaSha' saved them both before winning the next two points to draw first blood before taking the second in far more routine fashion.
It was back and forth after that with Sun, who defeated Chen Meng earlier on Sunday, almost appearing to take the fifth game off as Wang pulled back to 2-3.
But Sun was back to her usual self in the sixth game, attacking relentlessly to complete victory in 58 minutes.
With a lead in excess of 3,000 points at the top of the world rankings, it does not look like 'ShaSha' will be dethroned any time soon. She heads to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games strongly fancied to go one better than her Tokyo 2020 indlvidual silver.
Incredibly, that was Sun's fourth match of the day and started less than half an hour after she and Wang Manyu had clinched the first WTT Finals women's doubles crown.
The Chinese pair beat Japan's Kihara Miyuu and Nagasaki Miyu 3-1 (12-10 , 8-11, 11-4, 12-10) in the final.
Sixth seeds Kihara and Nagasaki had won the last doubles title at the old World Tour Grand Finals in 2019, but they were toppled by the duo that led China to Olympic team gold at Tokyo 2020.