Wang Chuqin Photo: VCG

China's Wang Chuqin missed out on the men's singles title after a 4-2 defeat to Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan, while Chen Xingtong claimed the women's singles title as the World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions concluded in Yokohama, Japan, on Monday.

The defeat ended Wang's eight-match winning run against Harimoto, currently ranked world No.4. In their previous 14 encounters at international events, Wang had lost only twice to Harimoto.

Wang, currently world No.2, fell behind early, losing three consecutive games. However, he regrouped and fought back, taking the next two games 11-9 and 13-11. In the sixth game, with Wang closing the gap, Harimoto called a medical timeout, then went on to win 11-4, sealing the victory.

Wang conceded too many unforced mistakes during the match, giving the opponent too many easy points, Wang Dazhao, a Beijing-based sports commentator, told the Global Times after the match. 

"When you are falling at 0-3, it's difficult to fight back. If not for the mistakes, Wang would still be the one with the advantage over Harimoto," said the commentator. 

Wang swept past Truls Moregard of Sweden 4-0 en route to the final, while Harimoto edged out Kanak Jha of the US 4-1 earlier in the semifinal on Monday.

In July, Wang overpowered Harimoto 4-0 to win the WTT US Smash. 

After the all-Chinese semifinals in the women's singles, Chen dethroned her teammate and World No.1 Sun Yingsha 4-2.

"I faced many challenges in the match against Sun. I didn't expect to win, and now it still feels a bit unreal. I'll treat everyone to a meal when I get back," said Chen.

After the quarterfinal on Sunday, when Harimoto defeated Chinese athlete Xiang Peng 4-2, the Japanese paddler accused Chinese coach Wang Hao of giving him a perfunctory handshake, which sparked debates on Chinese social media. 

From the post-match video replay, it can be seen that after his victory, Harimoto first celebrated wildly. When he finished celebrating and approached the Chinese team's coaching bench to shake hands with Wang, Wang was eager to review the match with Xiang, giving Harimoto a quick handshake before immediately turning to speak with Xiang, according to the sports media outlet Titan Sports.

Commenting on this issue, some netizens on Sina Weibo said that Wang had been waiting to shake hands, but Harimoto took his time and didn't go over right away.

Another Sina Weibo user commented that Wang had no obligation to wait that long for Harimoto. They hoped that in the future, after winning, Harimoto would also respect his opponents by coming to shake hands promptly instead of making the opposing coach wait during his celebrations.

Former Olympic champion Xu Xin said in live stream that the only way to solve the problem is to defeat Harimoto more often.

"Simply put, if you let him win too much, he gains confidence and dares to speak out. But if you win, he'll be polite. And it's not about defeating him just once in a while you have to defeat him often," said Xu. 

Running from Thursday to Monday, the tournament in Japan featured 32 of the world's table tennis stars, with a total prize of $500,000.

The spotlight will be moved to Malmo, Sweden, where the WTT Grand Smash Series will make its European debut from August 14 to 24. 

The WTT China Smash 2025 is scheduled from September 25 to October 5 at Shougang Park in Beijing's Shijingshan district.