Huge congrats to our One True King for taking the WTT Finals title in Fukuoka! (Yeah, I know it’s been two months.) After a post-Olympic rough patch and a six-month singles title drought since the Saudi Smash in May, Wang Chuqin is finally back on top. It’s been a while, it’s been a ride.

Jayden and I have talked a lot about Wang’s struggle phase. Coming from other sports backgrounds like swimming and track, we initially underestimated just how brutal the table tennis schedule was and assumed that a slump lasting six months to a year was pretty standard. Honestly, I expected his comeback to happen sometime in mid-2025, maybe at the US Smash (totally unbiased, of course, cuz I’ll be there! 😆). But here we are, way ahead of schedule. He fell, he fought, and he bounced back.

Why “bounce?” Wang’s been bouncing between nonstop tournaments for four months straight. But it’s not just the travel – his game thrives on a rhythm of rapid reflexes and split-second adjustments, like a ping-pong ball ricocheting between rackets. Even when his touch wasn’t at its best, that rhythm kept him in the fight.

Table tennis is often called “chess at light speed” because it’s all about reading the game and making instant strategic shifts. Last October, I raved about Wang’s adaptability when he dealt with those weird seamless balls at the Asian Championships. This time in Fukuoka, he took it up a notch.

Round of 16 vs. Patrick Franziska: Grit Over Perfection

It was clear from the first match that Wang Chuqin wasn’t in peak form. His footwork looked a little shaky; his forehand receive wasn’t landing right, and his shots lacked their usual precision. But he still found ways to win.

Take his Round of 16 match against Patrick Franziska, for example. The second game was a bit of a mess, with both players trading awkward errors and the scoreline swinging back and forth. Even so, Wang stayed proactive, trying with different serves until he nailed the short sidespin serve that flipped a 6-7 deficit into a 7-7 tie. That threw Franziska off, leaving him stuck between flipping, fast pushing, and counter-looping. Then came the nail-biting final rallies at 10-10 and 11-10, where Wang showed both patience and killer instinct to close it out. His game wasn’t flawless, but his tactical discipline saved the day.

Quarterfinal vs. Truls Moregard: The Serve Attack Strategy

After surviving Franziska, Wang faced Truls Moregard in a highly anticipated quarterfinal, their first rematch since the Olympics. He dropped the 2nd game, leveling the score at 1-1, then switched gears. He ditched the cautious drop shots, which weren’t landing well that day, and went full send on aggressive third-ball attacks, adding more backhand flips and long heavy-spin pushes on receive.

In that game alone, Wang served eight times, mainly targeting Moregard’s mid and forehand zones with short shots, and scored seven points just off those serves. Four of them came from immediate third-ball attacks – counterattacks after the serve (turning 0-2 into 1-2, 3-3 into 4-3, 6-4 into 7-4, 9-5 into 10-5). One was snagged with a quick follow-up after the first return (1-2 to 2-2), and two more points came from Moregard’s struggles on receive (4-3 to 5-3 and 7-4 to 8-4). Moregard kept adjusting his stance, but Wang’s relentless attack-after-service strategy left him no time to recover. Meanwhile, Wang’s counterattacks on Moregard’s nine serves, mostly short serves with flat or side topspin, netted him another four points.

In his post-match interview, Wang summed it up simply: “It’s not a revenge… I was just focused on giving my all in every single point, trying to find that ‘in-the-zone‘ feeling I’ve had in previous matches.” Mission accomplished.

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Instead of the later showdown between Wang and Lin Yun-Ju, which was more about pure grit than technique, amid off-court drama (pressure from teammate Liang Jingkun’s unexpected loss, rushed warm-up, etc.), this Wang Chuqin vs. Kao Cheng-Jui match offers a perfect window into elite-level table tennis, where players think on their feet and solve problems mid-game. And that’s what makes this sport so engaging.

Game 1: When Your Go-To Move Isn’t Working (11-9)

Wang Chuqin’s usually deadly forehand loops… Not happening this time with those unpredictable seamless balls that cost him five points alone. Kao Cheng-Jui did his homework and snagged 2 points with well-placed long serves to Wang’s backhand and another 2 with counter-loop by reading Wang’s placements like he had a cheat sheet.

But here’s how Wang scraped through: out of his 11 points, he got 1 from Kao’s receive sailing off the table, grabbed another by reading Kao’s long serve for a direct wide-angle counter (1), sneaked in a counter-looping (1), landed a nice long serve to Kao’s backhand (1), racked up 4 points with varied placements in rallies, managed 2 forehand counter-attacking once he got used to the ball, and sealed the deal with a crafty forehand push that shifted placement (1). Not exactly his typical aggressive style, but sometimes you gotta play the jazz version of your rock songs, whatever gets the job done.

Game 2: Finding His Groove (11-5)

This is where Wang Chuqin started cooking.

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