The table tennis WTT Saudi Arabia Grand Slam tournament continued on 7 May. Chinese table tennis team Smash veteran Ma Long was attacked by South Korean star Zhang U-jin, and the two of them faced off in the second round of the men’s singles, resulting in a 0-3 defeat for Ma, who won the World Cup men’s singles title only a short time ago, being swept away, and thus stopping him from the top thirty-two in the men’s singles.
The Chinese table tennis team’s three main players, Liang Jingkun, Wang Manyu and Lin Gaoyuan, have already been eliminated from the tournament, and now that Ma Long has lost to Zhang Yuzhen, the Chinese team has suffered a major setback, so the remaining athletes should be careful! See below for details of the battle.
Zhang U-jin is a formidable foe for the Chinese table tennis team, having beaten the likes of Zhang Jike, Xu Xin and Liang Jingkun, as well as Wang Chuqin at this year’s World Table tennis Championships in Pusan, almost eliminating the Chinese men’s team along with his teammates, but his play is very erratic and he is only able to pull off the occasional blowout, unable to form a long term threat and is somewhat similar to South Korean Olympic champion Ryu Seung-min from back in the day.
In his past matches against Zhang Yuzhen, Ma Long had been undefeated with three consecutive victories, but Wang Chuqin hadn’t lost to him in the past either, and that meant that this opponent could go cold at any time, and Ma Long couldn’t afford to let his guard down.
The first set started with a very intense battle between the two players, with Zhang using her forehand to break the defence and hitting many unexpected quality shots, while Ma was able to limit Zhang’s play through more comprehensive control, resulting in Zhang winning 13-11 after wasting many set points, roaring and cheering herself up on the court.
In the second set, Zhang Yuzhen continued to play very strongly, although Ma Long once bit the score, but then was still disrupted by the opponent’s attack, and he also made a lot of errors, as a result, Zhang Yuzhen again 11-6 to take, and even the backhand attack is also very good, Ma Long situation is critical!
In the third set, Ma Long was already on the back foot, but he fell behind again, and even after calling a timeout, he couldn’t get back on his feet. In the end, Zhang Yuzhen locked up an 11-8 victory, thus breaking through the Chinese team’s main defence for the second time this year, and advancing to the Men’s Singles Round of 16 at the top of the heap.
It seems that a player like Zhang U-jin, although his performance is very unstable, is very difficult to deal with if he can get into shape. This is mainly because there are very few players with such a strong forehand in today’s ping pong world, so it is hard for people to adapt to him when he is playing like crazy, so I hope that Ma Long and the Chinese table tennis team can learn the lesson and try to fight back to win the game next time.
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