Xu Xin is a quick study. Then again, the 29-year-old lefty penholder from China has always made greatness look easy. Ranked #1 in the world as early as 2013 and as recently as last month, Xu's brilliant play has earned him high-flying nicknames like "Xu-perman" and "The Cloudwalker." Xu's formidable skill set includes overpowering topspin from both wings and a crowd-pleasing proclivity for high-arcing lob defense. This year saw the introduction of a new challenge for these skills in the form of the T2 Diamond tournament series. T2 Diamond features a unique sudden-death game format, where the first to 11 points wins the game, even at deuce. To ramp up the pressure even more, every game after the 24 minute mark is played in Fast5 format, which is sudden death to five points. The inaugural T2 tournament, held this July in Malaysia, saw Xu Xin ousted in the semifinals by his compatriot Fan Zhendong. Fan, currently ranked #1 in the world, then lost in the final to 18-year-old Lin Yun-Ju of Chinese Taipei. While Xu did win the third place match over Hong Kong's Wong Chun Ting, he was left unfulfilled in his Diamond quest. Flash forward to November 21-24 in Singapore, where the latest T2 Diamond tournament took place. Once again, Xu Xin was in the hunt. The top seed, Xu first faced a rematch with Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong in the sweet sixteen. An unfortunate slip and fall for Wong, 28, gave Xu the walkover victory. Next up in the quarterfinals, Xu met Jeoung Youngsik of the Republic of Korea. Jeoung, 27, fell behing 0-2 before rallying to claim the third game. From there, Xu hit the gas and never looked back, winning the last game in Fast5 to advance to the semis. There, Xu encountered Japanese wunderkind Tomokazu Hariomoto, the 16-year-old still looking for his first win against "Xu-perman." Unfortunately for Harimoto, he could not find the kryptonite. Xu replicated the narrative arc from his previous match, losing the third game before closing out the match in Fast5. For his efforts against ever-younger opponents, Xu earned a matchup in the finals with the inaugural T2 Diamond champion Lin Yun-Ju, still only 18 years of age. Those expecting an epic battle between the young defending champion and the living legend were perhaps disappointed, as "The Cloudwalker" calmly strolled through four straight games, (11-9, 11-5, 11-8, 11-6). In the end, Xu Xin only needed one do-over to get the hang of the new T2 Diamond tournament format. "Xu-perman," as it turns out, learns faster than a speeding bullet.

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