WTT Grand Slam" is not afraid of the "King of Reversal"! Guo Guanhong broke Liang Jingkun's myth and advanced to the top 16

Guo Guanhong defeated Chinese star Liang Jingkun and reached the quarterfinals of men's singles for the first time in a Grand Slam. (Taken from WTT official website)

[Reporter Xu Mingli/Comprehensive Report] Tainan youngster Guo Guanhong, who will celebrate his 18th birthday on October 24, defeated Chinese star Liang Jingkun 3:1 in the men's singles second round of the WTT Grand Slam today and broke into the top 16 of the Grand Slam for the first time. He feels that what he has improved the most this time is his desire to win and his attitude of wanting to win.

Liang Jingkun, who has a career-high ranking of No. 2 in the world, has staged the classic reversal drama of "2 to chase 3" many times in his career and is known as the "King of Reversals". At the World Team Table Tennis Championships in London in May this year, he faced the French "glasses guy" A. Leblanc in the semi-finals and the Japanese star Tomokazu Haramoto in the finals. Both times, he reversed the situation after falling behind 0:2 and helped the Chinese team win the championship.

Facing the well-known Liang Jingkun, Guo Guanhong performed well in the first two games, winning 11:7 and 11:2. However, in the third game, Liang Jingkun showed his reversal skills and recovered the first game with 11:6. In the fourth game, he also won 10:8. At the critical moment, Guo withstood the pressure and scored 4 points in a row to prevent his opponent from extending the battle line.

When Guo Guanhong was interviewed by the Chinese media after the game, he said that he had known on the Internet that Liang Jingkun was very good at "letting 2 chase 3". Therefore, although he won the first 2 games, he did not feel that it was easy to win. Later, when he fell behind 8:10 in the 4th game, he wanted to say it was over! Fortunately, there were some lucky balls in the end, and some goals that he was not good at scoring were also deceived by him.

Guo Guanhong said in an interview with this newspaper, "I think my overall performance this time was pretty good. I have also shown some strength in my stalemate. I have also improved in my regular practice of returning serve. But I think the biggest improvement is my desire to win. I think I have shown my hard work and attitude!"

In the top 16, Guo Guanhong, ranked 39th in the world, will face the new world champion and Japanese rising star Terukora Matsushima. The two met at the Havezov Youth Challenge 4 years ago. At that time, Guo Guanhong lost 0:3. They met again after 4 years. Guo said, "Show your attitude and fight him with all your strength!" He hopes to advance to the top 8.