Reigning Champion Amy Wang Caps Year with US Open Gold
by Joshua Dyke
Singles – Amy Wang (USA) in the championship final at the 2023 US Open Table Tennis Championships – Ontario Convention Center – Ontario, CA. Dec. 20, 2023.
Amy Wang capped off an impressive year by winning the 2023 US Open Women’s Singles Championships for the second straight year in Ontario, California. Coming off a Pan Am Championships women’s singles gold medal just three months prior in Havana, Cuba, Wang was poised and ready for more international success.
The coveted American title was all the more meaningful for her this year considering the quality of competition at the event. Wang was tested throughout the knockout rounds, finding herself up against multiple opponents from the Chinese and Japanese contingents.
Wang’s opponent in the finals was ultimately Hitomi Edahiro. A well-known favorite from Japan who likewise had been tested early, having already defeated the women’s singles top seed, Jun Gu, an experienced competitor that trains in China and also won the over-thirty women's singles event.
By the time warm-ups had started for the championship match, it seemed the games could go either way, as both experienced players gave the impression that they had no qualms about playing from a deficit or in close matches.
Edahiro was able to take a close game one of the women’s singles finals, but remaining calm and collected, it was all Amy Wang from game two and on. The 21-year-old American rising star defended her championship title by overpowering Edahiro to win decisively in five games to earn gold.