From 4 to 7 December 2021, the inaugural World Table Tennis Finals held in Singapore pitted the best of the best, including Olympic champions, against one another in the OCBC Arena at Singapore Sports Hub. The landmark tournament drew huge crowds, and tickets for its semi-finals and finals were all quickly snapped up.

This prestigious competition was broadcasted by 17 rights-holders in more than 200 countries on five continents, and it became the WTT event that generated the most engagement across all owned social media platforms in 2021.

Played in an elimination format, the inaugural WTT Cup Finals was headlined by elite shuttlers like Olympic champions Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng, who duked it out for a prize purse of US$500,000 (S$675,000).

Spectators at the event shared with Here to Play that they enjoyed watching the world’s best compete in OCBC Arena. They found watching the match-ups live very exciting and were thrilled to catch their sporting heroes live in action. Some attendees also mentioned that the safe management measures and social distancing helped them feel safe.

Its fixtures were not short of emotional wins and unexpected losses. Women’s world number one Wang Manyu of China suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong.

Cheered on by the home crowd, Feng Tian Wei of Singapore rallied impressively against Republic of Korea’s Jeon Jihee in the Round of 16 to book herself a place in the quarter-finals. However, she was defeated by eventual champion
Chen Meng of China.

One of the world’s highest ranked paddlers, Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan came close to defeating world number one Fan Zhendong and winning the tournament. PHOTO: SINGAPORE SPORTS HUB

Two of the competition’s most aggressive players, men’s number one ranked Fan Zhendong of China and Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan had the spectators at the edges of their seats. Fan took game one, while Harimoto fought back from an 8-4 deficit to win the second game 9-11. However, the top-ranked paddler proved his mettle by coming back to win games three, four and five.

After making it to the women’s final, women’s world number two Sun Yingsha faced fellow countrywoman Wang Yidi and was nearly defeated, but managed to stay composed and staged an enthralling comeback to win the tournament.

“I worked very hard to prepare for this potential match against Wang Yidi even though she is a familiar opponent of mine,” remarked Yingsha. “I feel like I’ve done better than in previous tournaments, but my matches in this tournament have also shown me where I can improve. I will be analysing these matches in slow motion together with my coaches, so that I can learn from them and improve.”

“It’s true that my match against Yingsha in this tournament was more exciting than our previous meetings, especially the second game, which was very close. My loss in the second game affected me in the third game,” shared Yidi. “However, I feel like I’ve definitely improved, in terms of mentality and performance. The venue and ambience were great, the spectators were very excited and the feeling I got playing here was amazing.”

This thrilling event also included specially choreographed performances by dance troupes ScRach MarcS and Limited Edition, and songs by Japanese idol Estelle Fly.

Spectators were treated to captivating performances. PHOTO: SINGAPORE SPORTS HUB