Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Chinese men`s table tennis player Fan Zhendong won the men`s singles gold medal at the 18th Asian Games at the JI Expo Kemayoran, Jakarta, on Saturday after defeating opponent Lin Gaoyuan 4-2.

Zhendong, who is the world number 1 table tennis player, was still too formidable for Gaoyuan despite giving a fierce resistance for 1 hour 7 minutes, but eventually he was forced to give up.

After taking the lead in the first two sets, with 11-8 and 11-5, Gaoyuan rose and took the third set after going through a long struggle through deuce, with a score of 17-15.

He managed to get points many times by fighting hard with high rotation in a position a bit far from the table. The left-handed player also got points from a spin on the table using wrist flexibility.

Likewise, in the fifth set, he only gave Zhendong 4 points before closing the set when Zhendong started to loosen the attack a bit.

At the 6th and 7th set, Zhendong used all his abilities, through a hard spin attack with the left and right variations of the opponent, and utilized various service advantages to gain points.

With the completion of the final match in this men`s group, China won five gold and three silver. Two silvers for China were from the men`s and women`s team numbers.

The bronze medal was won by South Korean table tennis player Lee Sangsu and Iranian table tennis player Alamya Daronkolaei Noshad.

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Reporting by Maswandi
Editing by Eliswan Azly

Reporter: Antara
Editor: Andi Abdussalam
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