2025 WTT Challenge Taiyuan Station: Japan won the singles double, and Matsushima Teruku won the first championship in his career

17-year-old Japanese table tennis star Teruku Matsushima defeated the world No. 24 South Korean star Ahn Jae-hyun 4:3 after a seven-game battle at the 2025 WTT Taiyuan Challenge on the evening of the 13th to win the first adult international singles championship in his career, and the world ranking will go from 32nd to the best 23rd of his career this week.

Japanese teenager Teruku Matsushima defeated South Korean star Ahn Jae-hyun to win the men's singles title

After defeating Hong Kong teenager Yao Juntao in straight games in the first round, Matsushima Teikong defeated Xu Haidong and Zhou Qihao in succession, and faced Chinese rookie Xiang Peng, who had just won the Incheon Championship last week and was ranked 13th in the world, in the quarterfinals, and Matsushima also passed the test with a light ride of 3:0.

Matsushima Teikong faced Ahn Jae-hyun in the final that night, and after the first 6 games, the two sides were 11:9, 8:11, 11:4, 8:11, 11:8, and 5:11. In the deciding game, Matsushima launched a wave of 8:1 onslaught after falling behind 1:3 in the opening game, and took a large lead of 9:4, but Ahn Jae-hyun also showed resilience to chase 9 draws.

At the decisive moment, Ahn Jae-hyun grabbed a forehand serve out of bounds, and Songdo forced the end point of the game 10:9, but then made a mistake in receiving the serve and was tied again. However, Matsushima quickly came back to his senses and won a thrilling 12:10 win with consecutive forehands in a row.

Ahn Jae-hyun has scored 280 points despite missing out on the title, and will rise to 19th in the world rankings on Tuesday, the first time in his career that he has reached the top 20.

Japanese chipper player Hashimoto Honoka defeated Zhu Yuling in four straight games and won the women's singles championship

In the women's singles of Taiyuan Station, after Japan's female chipping player Hashimoto Fanoka defeated Hong Kong women's Zhu Chengzhu 3:0 in the first round, she drew Liu Weishan, Zong Geman and Qin Yuxuan in straight sets, and faced the former world queen Zhu Yuling who represented Macao in the final, and won 11:8, 11:5, 11:8, 11:5, with a strong performance of 5 consecutive wins and 1 game without loss, and won the first WTT Challenger women's singles championship in her career.

After Hashimoto won the championship, the world ranking will rise from 18th to 13th, tying the best of his career; Zhu Yuling, who won the second place, also advanced from 24th to 18th.