The rise of a world champ

Just six months ago, world No. 4 Wang Manyu was left out of China's women's main team for the Tokyo Olympics, named only as a reserve. But she was called upon to replace the injured Liu Shiwen and helped the Chinese claim a fourth straight team gold.

Riding on that momentum, Wang is now a singles world champion after she beat compatriot and world No. 2 Sun Yingsha 4-2 (11-13, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 17-15) in the final at the World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, Texas, on Monday.

This is Wang's maiden world singles crown and in the semi-finals, the 22-year-old avenged her 2019 loss to world No. 1 Chen Meng at the same stage with a hard-fought 4-3 win.

While Wang has won the women's doubles and team golds, her previous best result in the singles was the joint bronze in 2019.

In her post-match interview, Wang said she will be celebrating by reviewing the match to see how she can improve in future.

She added: "I am really excited and happy now. I don't think there's a loser in tonight's final. We are the same age and we're good opponents, good friends. We inspire each other to do our best so I want to give thanks to Sha-sha and all the fans that support us."

Olympic singles silver medallist Sun, 21, added: "Firstly, I'm very pleased that I made it to the finals in all three events I participated in. I give my congratulations to Manyu, she did a very good job tonight.

"We're very familiar with each other and I made some mistakes tonight but I'm still very happy."

Earlier, Wang and Sun retained their women's doubles title after beating Japanese duo Mima Ito and Hina Hayata. Sun also added the mixed doubles gold to her haul after she and Wang Chuqin defeated Japanese Tomokazu Harimoto and Hayata.

Meanwhile, in the men's singles final, a new champion was also crowned as Chinese world No. 1 Fan Zhendong comfortably beat Swedish teenager Truls Moregard 4-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8).

It was Fan's fifth singles outing at the world championships, with his previous best result being runner-up in 2017. He won the joint bronze in 2015 and reached the round of 16 in 2019 and last 32 in 2013.

Tokyo Olympics singles silver medallist Fan, 24, was ecstatic about the result, adding: "Before the game, I was really nervous because it's not just about my own goals, I need to take responsibility (for the team), I wanted to win this honour for our team and I did it.

"Every game is like an adventure to me, so this final game is not the final point for me. I hope I can learn a lot from this game and continue my career and develop myself."

World No. 31 Moregard was disappointed but heartened by his run to the final. The 19-year-old said: "He's a much better player, he's world No. 1 for a reason and it was a tough match."

The quartet of Chen, Wang, Sun and Fan's next event is the inaugural World Table Tennis Cup Finals in Singapore from Saturday to next Tuesday at the OCBC Arena. They will be joined by other top players including Singaporean world No. 11 Feng Tianwei.

Fan said: "In Houston, I felt a lot of support from the fans and in Singapore, I hope everyone will continue supporting me, cheering me on and liking table tennis."