The 2019 world championships for table tennis will be held in Budapest (HUN in late April, so the Hungarian Open – in Budapest – was a dress rehearsal. That meant that the top Chinese players would be on hand and they displayed their continued domination of the sport by winning all five classes and going 1-2 in four of them.
One of the bright new Chinese stars is Gaoyuan Lin, 23, and he won the men’s Singles title. Meng Chen, 25, appears to be the next women’s star from China and she defeated 2017 World Championships runner-up Yuling Zhu, 4-2, in the final.
The men’s Doubles and women’s Doubles finals were all-Chinese affairs, with Jingkun Liang and Xin Xu winning in the men’s competition and Manyu Wang and Zhu taking the women’s title.
Xu and Shiwen Liu won the Mixed Doubles, but over local favorites Adam Szudi and Szandra Pergel of Hungary. Summaries:
ITTF World Tour/Hungarian Open
Budapest (HUN) ~ 17-29 January 2019
(Full results here)
Men’s Singles: 1. Gaoyuan Lin (CHN); 2. Chuqin Wang (CHN); 3. Zhendong Fan (CHN) and Xin Xu (CHN). Semis: Lin d. Xu, 4-0; Wang d. Fan, 4-3. Final: Kin d. Wang, 4-0.
Men’s Doubles: 1. Jingkun Liang/Xin Xu (CHN); 2. Zhendong Fan/Gaoyuan Lin (CHN); 3. Tristan Flore/Emmanuel Lebesson (FRA) and Siu Hang Lam/Chun Ting Wong (HKG). Semis: Liang/Xu d. Flore/Lebesson, 3-0; Fan/Lin d. Lam/Wong, 3-2. Final: Liang/Xu d. Fan/Lin, 3-2.
Women’s Singles: 1. Meng Chen (CHN); 2. Yuling Zhu (CHN); 3. Shiwen Liu (CHN) and Manyu Wang (CHN). Semis: Zhu d. Liu, 4-3; Chen d. Wang, 4-1. Final: Chen d. Zhu, 4-2.
Women’s Doubles: 1. Manyu Wang/Yuling Zhu (CHN); 2. Meng Chen/Yinsha Sun (CHN); 3. Elizabeta Samara/Bernadette Szocs (BEL) and Hoi Kem Doo/Ho Ching Lee (HKG). Semis: Wang/Zhu d. Samara/Szocs, walkover; Chen/Sun d. Doo/Lee, walkover. Final: Wang/Zhu d. Chen/Sun, 3-1.
Mixed Doubles: 1. Xin Xu/Shiwen Liu (CHN); 2. Adam Szudi/Szandra Pergel (HUN); 3. Alexander Shibaev/Polina Mikhailova (RUS) and Lubomir Pistej/Barbora Balazova (SVK). Semis: Xu/Liu d. Pistej/Balazova, 3-0; Szudi/Pergel d. Shibaev/Mikhailova, 3-0. Final: Xu/Liu d. Szudi/Pergel, 3-0.
