On paper, it should be no surprise when the top-ranked player in the world wins something. So high are the expectations for such elite athletes that their inevitable failures to win everything all the time are, in and of themselves, newsworthy. Such is the situation for China's Chen Meng, 26. Ranked #1 in the world by a wide margin, has won a stunning 19 out of 24 ITTF women's singles finals. Her Hall-of-Fame career has, however, thus far remained unadorned by "Grand Slam" hardware, i.e. singles titles from the Olympics, World Championships or World Cup. This week in Weihai, China, Chen had a chance to rewrite this narrative at the 2020 ITTF Women's World Cup. A scorched earth policy in her wake indicated she had no intention of leaving another Major on the shelf. Her smooth path to the finals was only slowed in the semis by Germany's Han Ying, a tenacious defender who took Chen to the deciding seventh game. In the other semifinal, China's Sun Yingsha, at 20 the third ranked player in the world, faced the #2 seed Mima Ito of Japan. Such a threat to China's hegemony is Ito that China's coaches instruct certain bench-warmers to emulate her style, right down to the short pips on the backhand. This allows China's top players to practice against their greatest international rival, the bulk of their competition of course originating domestically. The strategy appears effective, as Sun advanced to the finals in six games. Today's final was a blistering affair, with both players whipping backhands at each other faster than the Large Hadron Collider. In the first set, Sun, down 6-10, wins five in a row to claim game point. She converts on her second opportunity, 13-11. In the second frame, Sun leads 5-1, only to see Chen close the game on a 10-1 run to level the match. Down to the wire, Chen claims the pivotal third game, 11-9. With momentum on her side and the long-awaited goal in site, Chen dominates game four, 11-6. So easy was the game for Chen, Sun even gifts her a service error at game point. In the fifth game, any hope for a Sun Yingsha comeback is hanging by a thread. At 8-all, however, it is anyone's game and anything can happen. Unwilling to consign matters to the vagaries of fate, Chen pounds Sun's backhand with everything she's got, which was good enough for the three points she needed. "This World Cup is a high point for me," said Chen. "I feel very happy to be stood here with the trophy. This will help my confidence going into the next tournament." In the end, it was no real surprise for world #1 Chen Meng to win the Women's World Cup. The only real surprise is that she hadn't done it sooner.

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