By Neha Aggarwal
The top seeded pair of Fan Zhendong and Lin Gaoyuan beat the second seeded pair of Fang Bo and Zhou Yu 3-1 (5-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-6).
“This is my first Asian Championships, and I really wanted to win a title, our aim for Gold is clear right from the start. After we confirmed our place in the final, we were prepared for any difficulties. When we lost the first game, we remained calm to fight back point by point.”- Lin Gaoyuan
Fang Bo and Zhou Yu started off the match well by winning the first game in a quick fashion 11-5. Their powerful attacks cross court proved to be beneficial in the first game. But it was also evident that Fan Zhendong and Lin Gaoyuan were still working on finding that right moment to get into the game.
“After losing the first game today, I think we did well to turn the tides around in our favour to win the next three games. All four of us are very familiar with each other, Fang Bo and Zhou Yu are a strong pair as well, and we all have a strong desire to win.” – Fan Zhendong
Remember it is a best of five match, not time to relax.
Fan Zhendong and Lin Gaoyuan relaized that soon and changed the course of the match winning the next game 11-6 and thus leveling the match. In the third game, Fan and Lin took an early lead of 7-3 to make their opponents sweat. But there was no stopping Fang and Zhou as they got back to 7-6. Stopping the rhythm of the match, Fan and Lin took a time out.
The time out worked and Fan and Lin, they won the third game 11-7.
In the fourth game, Fan and Lin again too the initial lead at 2-1. Fang and Zhou, understanding the gravity of the situation, took a time out to figure out what was wrong. But their efforts went in vain as Fan and Lin proved way too strong and wrapped up the game 11-6, and thus won the match to be crowned the Men’s doubles champions of the Seamaster 2017 ITTF-Asian Championships in Wuxi, China.
“We were looking forward to claiming the title even before the match started, and remained positive throughout, when we were preparing & when we met with difficulties in the match.”- Fan Zhendong
