Sun Yingsha Beats Kuai Man for Montpellier Title in Her Comeback From Injury
Back on tour after three months out with injury, the world No. 1 ground through two seven-game thrillers in France before a steadier 4-1 final — the Chinese team's first WTT Champions title of the season.
Sun Yingsha won her first WTT Champions title of the season on Saturday in Montpellier, beating fellow Chinese player Kuai Man 4-1 in the women's singles final — 8-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-9, 11-6 — in what fans on Weibo framed as a comeback from the injury layoff that had kept her off the tour for three months.
The final was the only straightforward match of her week. Sun, the world No. 1, opened with a straight-games win over Lutz, then was pushed to a deciding fifth game by Shin Yu-bin of South Korea, taken to seven games by Japan's Hayata Hina in the quarterfinals, and again to seven games by Wang Yidi in an all-Chinese semifinal — the Hayata match that the site covered as her comeback's sternest test. Kuai Man, who had beaten Chen Yi to reach the final, kept pace early before Sun's counterattack took over the middle games.
"I'm very happy," Sun said after the match, in remarks carried by the broadcaster Migu. "It's been three months, and with the injury and health issues my form has been up and down. This tournament was hard all the way — every match brought real difficulties — and I think that will help me a lot going forward."
The title mattered beyond the trophy. Fans counted that Chinese players had left Chongqing, Yokohama, Macau and Incheon without a single Champions title this year, making Montpellier the first event of the season the team had swept up — a post from the WTT account announcing the result was liked nearly 9,000 times. For Sun personally, it was the first Champions crown since injury forced her off the circuit, and it arrived in the same French city where, days earlier, she had refused a head start in an exhibition against France's No. 8 and taken a set off him anyway.
Posts followed her off the court as closely as on it: clips of her rallying with the crowd between games, praise for playing through visibly imperfect form, and reminders from fans — "take care of your body and finish healthy" was one widely shared message — that the next stop, the WTT Champions event in Frankfurt, is already days away.
She left Montpellier with the title, a first-in-the-season flag for her team, and a schedule that allows no rest.