In the all-Chinese 2019 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals, Chen Meng beat Wang Manyu for the women's title, while Fan Zhendong bested Ma Long in the men's event. As strange as 2020 has been, both defending titlists are hoping for some comforting familiarity in this year's contest. Tomorrow in Zhengzhou, China, each ITTF Finals final will be a rematch from last year. Chen Meng and Fan Zhendong, the respective women's and men's #1-ranked players in the world, are both in fine form. Each is fresh off claiming the 2020 ITTF World Cup, and gunning for another major title to cement their top ranking before the end of the season. For Chen, the semifinal was a rematch of the World Cup final against her teammate Sun Yingsha. Once again, Chen emerged victorious, advancing to the title match in the minimum number of games, (11-9, 11-8, 11-8, 12-10). "The result was unexpected," said Chen of the sweep. "Even though it looked one sided, every game had its crucial moments when things were tight and I feel lucky to win the match. Every match with her is exciting! There isn’t too much of a difference in our ability and our playing style is quite similar." In the other semifinal, Wang Manyu faced the last threat to a Chinese championship in the form of Mima Ito, the world #2 from Japan. Wang, close behind at world #5, made the case for a reshuffling of the rankings with a summary (11-3, 11-4, 11-9, 11-6) victory. "When facing this kind of pressure before the match, I try to bring that pressure into the match," said the victorious Wang. "The way I see it, with this pressure, my coach’s words and the trust in myself, I strive to push my opponent and do my best. I will try to take away as much as I can from tomorrow’s match." Wang Manyu will need to bring everything she can find to tomorrow's final if she hopes to reverse last year's result. This also describes the challenge for Ma Long, who defeated his dynamic penholder teammate Xu Xin in the semis, (11-13, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8, 11-7), to set up a rematch with Fan Zhendong. Fan, for his part, cleared the way for an all-Chinese final with his five-game dismissal of Republic of Korea's Jang Woojin, (11-8, 11-4, 13-15, 11-8, 11-5). The efficient five-game match notwithstanding, Fan believes he has yet to fire on all cylinders. "Even though I won, I didn’t think I performed to my best," humble-bragged Fan. "When I was leading 9-4 in the first game, I was a little too cautious and was lucky to have won game one." With both gold medals already secured for China, the coaches can enjoy a lazy Sunday. The four finalists, on the other hand, have an abundance of money, world ranking points and personal pride at stake. Rest assured, there will be no concessions from the incumbents—any transitions of power must be accomplished by force.

More at ITTF