China's Fan Zhendong captured his third consecutive ITTF World Cup title after a grueling 4-3 battle against Ma Long, a three-time Olympic gold medalist. Fan, the younger contender by nearly a decade, was the favorite to retain his crown in this #RESTART Series final. While Ma Long used his experience to steal the first set 11-9, Fan responded aggressively, dominating the next two sets 11-8 and 11-3.
Zhendong, who is nine years junior to Ma, entered the first men’s final of the #RESTART Series as the fan favourite to retain his title. But the legend of the sport Ma took an early lead and won the first set 11-9. Fan then came back strong to claim the second 11-8 and third 11-3.
Once he hit his stride, Fan exploited weaknesses in Ma's backhand to claim the fourth set 11-6, putting him up 3-1. But Ma fought back in the fifth, showcasing world-champion form with some incredible parallel shots to take the set 11-7.
Ma continued his comeback in the sixth set, keeping his cool and significantly improving his backhand play to win 11-7, pushing the match to a final deciding set.
With the score deadlocked at 5-5 in the seventh, Fan took a crucial timeout to regroup. He returned with renewed focus, winning several intense rallies to close the match 11-9, ending the contest with a final score of 9-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6, 7-11, 7-11, 11-9.
Fan's path to the championship was smooth in this first major global event following the pandemic-induced hiatus. He cruised through the semi-finals with a commanding 4-0 sweep over Jang Woojin of South Korea.
Ma's journey to the final was slightly more contested; he had to fight through a tight 4-3 match against Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto, who had finished as the runner-up the previous year. In the battle for third place, Harimoto eventually overcame Jang in a marathon match, winning 11-5 in the final set after a back-and-forth struggle (7-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6, 14-12, 6-11, 11-5).
After securing the bronze, Harimoto noted a significant dip in his performance compared to his earlier match. He admitted to making several unforced errors, explaining that while he felt confident and played well against Ma, he struggled with nerves and technical gaps when facing Woojin.
During the afternoon match, he felt like playing really well against Ma but against Woojin he was still a bit nervous as feels lacking skill in some areas.
Despite the disappointment of losing the afternoon match, Harimoto viewed the medal as a significant win, noting how difficult it was to secure even a single victory in such a competitive tournament.
The athletes are now preparing to head to Zhengzhou for the ITTF Finals, scheduled from November 19 to 22.