{"id":5587,"date":"2025-11-05T07:17:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=5587"},"modified":"2025-11-05T07:17:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:17:34","slug":"veteran-ying-han-shines-bright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/veteran-ying-han-shines-bright\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Ying Han shines bright"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Forty-two-year-old Ying Han enjoyed a successful outing at the WTT Champions Frankfurt, as she overcame World No.18 Cheng I-Ching to secure her spot in the women\u2019s singles Round of 16. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Defence specialist Han was simply unshakable despite Cheng\u2019s best efforts, she was unable to hit through the German, leaving Han to pick up a remarkable 11-4, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6 opening victory in Frankfurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Han, who made a career-best WTT Champions quarterfinal run in Macao earlier this year, will be looking to harness the home support for an even stronger finish this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I really enjoyed the match, I told myself, I\u2019m playing in Germany, I should enjoy it and play good for the fans and try to win every single point,&#8221; said Han.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cheng I-Ching vs Ying Han | WS R32 | #WTTFrankfurt 2025\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p5icz8kBIKE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Mima Ito left her opening round setback from Montpellier in the rear-view mirror, responding with a fine 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 11-3 victory over Jia Nan Yuan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elsewhere, Adriana Diaz delivered a masterclass in her first outing in Frankfurt, the Puerto Rican star capturing an emphatic 11-2, 11-8, 11-7 victory over Mo Zhang in the women&#8217;s singles Round of 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diaz had rocked Montpellier with an opening victory over United States Smash 2025 champion Zhu Yuling, and appears to have brought the same spectacular form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still on the hunt for her first WTT Champions silverware, Diaz will be aiming to continue bringing the heat, as her journey progresses in Frankfurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The match between Satsuki Odo and Zeng Jian went the full distance for the second time in consecutive weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week in Montpellier, Zeng pulled off a stunning upset win over Odo and would put the Japanese star under the cosh again on Tuesday morning. However, Zeng would fall shy at the end this time around as Odo hit back with instant revenge in Frankfurt, winning 11-9, 6-11, 11-5, 4-11, 11-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, German Patrick Franziska survived a scare in his men\u2019s singles Round of 32 battle with French talent Lilian Bardet, the former coming back to win in five nail-biting games 9-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A much-needed win for Franziska, having been ousted in the same stage at both WTT Champions Frankfurt 2023 and WTT Champions Frankfurt 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same fate was on the cards for the German, who entered the third game with a 0-2 game deficit threatening his every move. But Franziska upped the ante, showcasing an iron will to take the following two games on the trot, bringing play to a deciding game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trailing 5-8 in the final game, however, things began to look bleak for World No.20 Franziska with Bardet zeroing in on the win. But momentum would shift, as Franziska surged ahead to take the next four points in a row, before eventually clinching the game, and the win, with an 11-9 tagline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fifth seed Benedikt Duda would suffer a different fate, as the home favourite fell at the hands of Shunsuke Togami in their Round of 32 duel, the latter winning in three straight games 11-4, 11-9, 11-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A brilliant triumph for the Japanese star, but a tough setback for Duda, who exits his second consecutive WTT Champions event at the Round of 32 stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kanak Jha has begun his campaign in style at WTT Champions Frankfurt 2025, the World No.23 storming his way into the Round of 16 after upsetting sixth seed Darko Jorgic in three straight games 11-6, 11-8, 11-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Less than a week since he toppled World No.3 Hugo Calderano at the same hurdle in Montpellier, the American has defeated yet another player ranked in the World Top 10, a remarkable achievement for the 25-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jha, who also stunned fans with his semifinals finish back at WTT Champions Yokohama 2025, will be hoping to go all the way in Frankfurt, as he aims to bag his first WTT Champions trophy on German soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for the defeated Slovenian, it comes as a frustrating exit, given his respectable run to the quarterfinals last week in Montpellier.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Darko Jorgic is an amazing opponent, so I knew it could go either way. I\u2019m a little bit surprised, but incredibly happy to win in straight games,&#8221;said Jha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Darko Jorgic vs Kanak Jha | MS R32 | #WTTFrankfurt 2025\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P0uY0NB9cjg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Competing at his very first WTT Champions event, Manav Thakkar secured a dream outcome in the opening session taking down Tomislav Pucar 12-10, 3-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoying a breakout season in 2025, including two semifinal finishes on this year\u2019s WTT Series, now Thakkar can add a new milestone to that list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Showing great mental fortitude despite dropping the fourth game, the Indian player\u2019s victory over Pucar puts him on a collision course with the winner of Felix Lebrun and Oh Junsung, showing the depth of talent on display in Frankfurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Manav Thakkar vs Tomislav Pucar | MS R32 | #WTTFrankfurt 2025\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6eccyN-SPVk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Hit with a frustrating early exit last week in Montpellier, there was no such drama for Tomokazu Harimoto in Frankfurt, the Japanese player cruising past Jonathan Groth 11-6, 11-7, 11-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forty-two-year-old Ying Han enjoyed a successful outing at the WTT Champions Frankfurt, as she overcame World No.18 Cheng<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-5587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-table-tennis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ying-Han.jpg",1920,1080,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ying-Han-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ying-Han-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ying-Han-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ying-Han-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ying-Han-1536x864.jpg",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ying-Han.jpg",1920,1080,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ying-Han-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ying-Han-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/category\/newsbeat\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ying-Han.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5596,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587\/revisions\/5596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}