XU was the 2015 Men’s Doubles World Champion with Grand Slam Champion ZHANG Jike, after the duo defeated the combination of FAN & ZHOU Yu (CHN) back in 2015.
The new pair of XU & FAN played against top seeded Masataka MORIZONO & Yuya OSHIMA from Japan. In the battle between the first and third seeds for the prestigious title, the 8,000 sell-out crowd in Messe Düssledorf were treated to a show of world class table tennis in action.
The Chinese duo prevailed in five game (11-9, 16-14, 11-9, 6-11, 13-11) after a tight encounter to take home the crown.
Missing the title narrowly in Suzhou two years ago, FAN shared after winning the Doubles Gold in Düsseldorf “This is my first time winning gold in doubles. I’m very happy and lucky to be here.”
“As soon as I won against my own teammates I knew I just had to go for gold and win for my country,” added XU, who is no stranger to the title, having claimed both the Men’s Doubles & Mixed Doubles title in 2015.
Day seven of the World Championships also saw the confirmation of the final four places in the Men’s Singles semifinals to fight for the Men’s Singles crown.
Korea Republic’s LEE Sangsu continues his fairytale run in Düssledorf, after upsetting world number four ZHANG Jike (CHN), number 12 Vladimir SAMSONOV (BLR), he took down world number seven WONG Chun Ting (HKG) to make his first semifinals appearance & guarantee a podium finish at the World Championships.
LEE will face world number two FAN, who knocked out Koki NIWA (JPN) en route to the semifinals.
XU who had to save 5 match points against his teammate LIN Gaoyuan to reach the quarterfinals, ended 13-year-old Tomokazu HARIMOTO’s journey for the title. The world number three defeated the Japanese sensation 4-1 (11-9, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-4) to set up a meeting with reigning World & Olympic Champion MA Long (CHN).
MA had ended Germany’s last hope for the Men’s Singles title, eliminating Timo BOLL 4-2 (11-5, 8-11, 11-4, 5-11, 11-4, 11-9) to make it to the semifinals.
More drama & thrilling action will continue tomorrow from 10:00 (GMT+2) local time, with the Women’s Double & Men’s Singles semifinals & Gold medal matches happening:
- 10:00 – Men’s Singles semifinals: MA Long (CHN) VS XU Xin (CHN)
- 11:00 – Men’s Singles semifinals: LEE Sangsu (KOR) VS FAN Zhendong (CHN)
- 12:00 – Women’s Doubles semifinals: FENG Tianwei / YU Mengyu (SGP) VS CHEN Meng/ ZHU Yuling (CHN)
- 13:00 – Women’s Doubles semifinals: DING Ning / LIU Shiwen (CHN) VS Hina HAYATA/ Mima ITO (JPN)
- 14:30 – Men’s Singles Final
- 15:30 – Women’s Doubles Final
Fans can watch all the actions live on ITTF’s online streaming platform itTV: tv.ITTF.com
