Third time lucky! Ito ends wait in Austria

Ito defeated Zhu Yuling (CHN) in the final (11-5, 16-18, 11-7, 13-11, 12-10) to clinch her first gold on the 2019 ITTF World Tour after two silver medals at last month’s Swedish and German Opens.

“I tried to come into the rallies and win point by point. Thank you very much to all the Japanese fans and also the fantastic Austrian crowd who were always cheering for me. DANKESCHÖN!” – Mima Ito

World no.7 Ito had booked her place in a third consecutive women’s singles final on the ITTF World Tour by defeating Qian Tianyi (CHN) in straight games (11-6, 11-9, 11-9, 11-6) in Sunday’s semi-final.

Meanwhile for Zhu, the wait for a World Tour title goes on. The world no.4 has not celebrated women’s singles gold since the 2018 Korean Open. She assured herself of silver after overcoming fellow Chinese player Wang Yidi in a gritty seven-game contest (11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 4-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-3).