Wang beats Lebrun, keeps China’s ITTF World Cup hopes alive

Wang Chuqin kept alive China’s hopes of success in the men’s singles at the ITTF World Cup in Macau with a 4-2 victory over France’s Felix Lebrun on Friday.

Wang dropped a tense opening game despite leading 9-6 and 10-9, as world No 6 Lebrun fought back to edge it 13-11. The Chinese left-hander again found himself in trouble in the second, trailing 2-7, but turned the game around with a series of aggressive rallies to win at 11-9.

Lebrun regained the initiative in the third, moving ahead 6-2 and withstanding Wang’s late surge from 4-9 to 9-10 before closing it out 11-9 for a 2-1 lead. From there, Wang raised his level, dominating the fourth 11-5 after pulling away from 6-3, and taking control of the fifth from 6-6 to seal it 11-6 for a 3-2 advantage.

The sixth game delivered the fiercest drama of the night. Wang raced to a 7-3 lead and later moved 10-8 ahead, but Lebrun saved multiple match points and dragged the score to 13-13. Under heavy pressure and with no margin for error as China’s last remaining man, Wang held firm, finally closing out the game 15-13 to complete a hard-fought 4-2 victory.

“For this match in particular, I think my resilience was much better than before,” Wang said. “Today, in a very tough situation, I kept chasing point by point, telling myself that winning just one point would give me a bit of a chance, constantly sending myself that positive signal. In the end, I managed to hold on and rediscovered some good feelings.”

The world No 1 is the only Chinese man to make it into the last eight, and will face Slovenia’s Darko Jorgic, who upset Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov 4-1, on Saturday for a place in the semi-finals.