National Games: Wang Xinyu finishes with two silver medals, Xiao Bu misses out on doubles gold

On November 19, the doubles finals of the tennis competition at the 15th National Games were held at the Hengqin International Tennis Center, where the Jiangsu team Tang Sheng/Sun Qian and the Sichuan team Wang Yafan/Jiang Xinyu won the men's and women's doubles titles respectively.

In the men's doubles final, the 4th-seeded Jiangsu pair Tang Sheng/Sun Qian triumphed over the 3rd-seeded Zhejiang duo Bu Yunchaokete/Zheng Zhan with scores of 6-2, 3-6, 10-3 to secure the gold medal, leaving Bu Yunchaokete/Zheng Zhan with silver. The Guangdong team Zeng Yaojie/Yang Zijiang and the Beijing team Cui Jie/Te Rigele earned bronze medals.

Notably, in the first round of the men's singles, Bu Yunchaokete defeated Sun Qian. A few days later, they faced each other again across the net in the men's doubles final, where this time Sun Qian emerged victorious. At the press conference, Sun Qian smiled and said, "It was really tough. I grew up playing alongside Xiao Bu; when he was 12, I could still compete with him, but now I can’t, especially since his singles game is very strong."

Reflecting on their championship win, Tang Sheng said, "We definitely aimed for this goal, but we didn’t expect to actually win. I think we played perfectly this week." Sun Qian added, "We are very grateful to have won the championship. As my partner said, we never really expected to win; we just kept pushing forward with the mindset of making a breakthrough. Wearing black clothes this time, we wanted to be like dark horses charging ahead."

The women's doubles final also went to a deciding match tiebreak. The 2nd seeds, Sichuan pair Wang Yafan/Jiang Xinyu, captured the gold by defeating the 4th seeds, Guangdong duo Wang Xinyu/Yuan Yue, 6-1, 2-6, 10-6. Wang Xinyu/Yuan Yue took silver. The bronze medals went to the Tianjin pair Xu Yifan/Wang Xiyu and the Sichuan pair Guo Hanyu/Tang Qianhui.

At the previous National Games, Wang Yafan/Jiang Xinyu won silver in women's doubles. This time in Hengqin, the two finally secured the precious National Games gold medal in women's doubles. After the match, they were very emotional and hugged tightly. Wang Xinyu earned two medals in this edition: a silver in women's doubles and a bronze in women's singles.

On November 20, the tennis event at the 15th National Games will conclude with the men's and women's singles gold medals decided. At 10 a.m., the only two Chinese male players who have won ATP Tour singles titles, Wu Yibing and Shang Juncheng, will face each other for the first time in their careers. At 2 p.m., Zhu Lin, the silver medalist in women's singles at the Hangzhou Asian Games, will compete against Gao Xinyu for the women's singles gold.

(Source: News and Publicity Department of the Tennis Competition Committee, 15th National Games)