Sun Yingsha: the two-time world champion leading women's table tennis

Sun Yingsha is the face of women's table tennis in the 2020s. Since joining China's senior team, she has piled up world titles, World Cups and Olympic golds, almost always with a fast, aggressive style that leaves opponents very little time to react.

This page sums up Sun Yingsha's career, her titles, her partnership with Wang Chuqin and what makes her game so hard to play against.

Who is Sun Yingsha

Sun Yingsha was born on November 4, 2000, in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province in China. She is right-handed and plays with the shakehand grip. She stood out as a junior and, in 2018, won the mixed team event at the Youth Olympic Games with Wang Chuqin, a partnership that would return years later on the senior tour.

She first reached world No. 1 in February 2022.

Sun Yingsha's titles

The world singles titles

At the 2023 World Championships in Durban, Sun beat teammate Chen Meng in the final for her first world singles title. In Doha in 2025, she defended it against Wang Manyu in a seven-game final that many rank among the best women's world finals ever. At the same event she also won mixed doubles with Wang Chuqin. The history of the event is in World Table Tennis Championships.

The Olympics

Sun Yingsha's Olympic story has a twist: she has won everything in the team events and reached two singles finals, but lost both to the same player, teammate Chen Meng.

• Tokyo 2020: singles silver and team gold.
• Paris 2024: singles silver, mixed doubles gold with Wang Chuqin and team gold.

Playing style

Sun Yingsha plays very close to the table at a very high tempo. Her main strengths:

• Speed: she takes the ball early, right after the bounce, and rushes her opponent.
• Quick footwork that lets her use her forehand even on balls to her backhand side.
• A solid backhand, for both blocking and attacking.
• Focus in big points, with few errors.

This style of constant pressure is typical of China's great attackers and helps explain why China dominates table tennis. The different styles are covered in table tennis playing styles.

Sun Yingsha among the greats

With two world singles titles, three straight World Cups and three Olympic golds, Sun Yingsha is already among the most successful players in history. The one title still missing is Olympic singles gold, which legends like Deng Yaping won twice.

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