by Ian Marshall, Editor

Success and they very much maintained the ethos of the tournament; they commenced play as the second seeds as opposed to their opponents who headed the order. Thus, somewhat different to previous years, of the five events on offer, not one was won by the top seeds.

Undoubtedly the crucial stage of the contest arose in the sixth game, level at 9-all, Hina Hayata and Mima Ito, elected for “Time Out”, the break was to work in favour of Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu.

Notably Hina Hayata and Mima Ito had enjoyed success in opposition to Chinese partnerships; on the Seamaster ITTF World Tour, they beat Chen Meng and Zhu Yuling in the final in 2017 in Stockholm before last year securing the title in Linz at the final expense of Chen Xingtong and Sun Yingsha.

In Budapest there was to be no repeat, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu underled their growing status, having earlier this year won on the Seamaster 2019 ITTF World Tour in Qatar.

It is the 22nd time when China has won the women’s doubles title but since 1997 in Manchester when Deng Yaping and Yang won, it is only the second time that the title has not been won be a left and right handed partnership. Like colleagues Liu Shiwen and Zhu Yuling who won in 2015 in Suzhou both Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu are right handers.

Moreover, it is the ninth time China has completed the clean sweep of the five events.

Men’s Singles Final: Match Report