Do you lose sleep wondering if you are one of the all-time greats? Here's an easy test to help you get some rest. When you step into your competitive endeavor's version of Thunderdome, are you competing against that day's opponent, or against history? If you answered the latter, then you might be an all-time great. Such is the case for the winners of today's 2020 ITTF Finals in Zhengzhou, China, each of whom stamped a singular superlative on the record books. At 3:00 local time, the women's finals commenced. Just like in the 2019 ITTF Finals, Chen Meng defeated Wang Manyu in five games to claim the championship. In the always pivotal third game, Wang held two game points but could not capitalize. Chen, exerting unrelenting pressure with her off-the-bounce backhand counterdrive, overpowered Wang for the title, (11-9, 11-13, 14-12, 11-8, 11-5). "The first three games were very close," reflected the victorious Chen. "Wang Manyu kept closing the gap and the entire match was always tight. She was really determined and played very good shots, putting me under a lot of pressure. I could feel that she really wanted to win. At a few crucial moments, she made errors, but I made several myself as well." The handful of errors notwithstanding, the win was Chen Meng's fourth consecutive ITTF Finals championship, the first four-peat in ITTF Finals history. Her four wins all time also ties the women's record, now shared with her countrywoman Zhang Yining, who netted four during a dominant run between 2000 and 2006. The win also caps a dominant 2020 for Chen, who won all four events she entered in the pandemic-shortened ITTF season, including the World Cup. At 3:50, the gentlemen's denouement got underway. The heavyweight title bout between between Ma Long and Fan Zhendong was a rematch of many recent finals, not only the 2019 ITTF Finals but the 2020 Chinese national championships and the 2020 ITTF Men's World Cup, all of which went the world #1 Fan Zhendong's way. This time, however, it was the veteran Ma Long who had an answer for everything. Even a seemingly unreturnable "double happiness" (i.e. net and then edge ball) by Fan at deuce in the third was no problem for Ma, who calmly forehand looped a winner en route to a dominant (13-11, 11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8) scoreline. It is Ma's sixth ITTF Finals title, padding his own record dating back to 2008. His closest competitor is compatriot Wang Liqin, winner of three titles between 1998 and 2004. Despite his historical advantage, he is honest about the current state of affairs. "In terms of overall ability on the table, Fan is second to none at this current point in time," admitted Ma. "Since last year we have played each other in several finals, including at the Men’s World Cup last week, and he had the upper hand. In today’s match I really wanted to challenge him and thankfully I managed to win." Now that Chen Meng and Ma Long have poured another truckload of concrete around their legacies, they can rest assured that their places in history are assured. You too can use this easy metric to determine if you are an all-time great. Now get some rest.

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