The 2025 World Series in Doha is just around the corner, and for the Chinese table tennis team, which has just undergone a major change in leadership, the tournament will undoubtedly be a serious test, on the one hand, because the new chairman Wang Liqin has been rushed into the post, and is likely to face a lot of problems in the transition, and on the other hand, because the table tennis team has already suffered a number of defeats in the Olympic cycle in Los Angeles, including the men’s singles title at the World Cup in Macau, which they lost only a short time ago.
However, many friends who follow the Bing world probably know the connection between Wang Liqin and the World Series, once he was once known as the king of the tournament, in the athletic period of 11 times to win the World Series gold medal, including the men’s team, men’s singles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles, 4 major events all topped, men’s singles was crowned for 3 times – these history you still remember! Do you still remember this history?
Wang Liqin was born on June 18, 1978, was the core of the Chinese table tennis team’s main athletes, in the late 1990s has risen in the domestic and international arena, became the then head coach Cai Zhenhua’s focus on training objects, in 1997 for the first time to participate in the World Table Tennis Championships will be a hit, a blast to beat the Chinese table tennis rival Perlsson (Sweden’s famous player, the World Table Tennis Championships, World Cup singles title winners).
However, Wang Liqin failed to win the men’s singles event and lost to Samsonov of Belarus. He was not selected for the men’s team and failed to reach the podium in the men’s doubles, but he won the bronze medal in the mixed doubles with Wang Nan, which made the trip worthwhile.
After that, Wang Liqin’s performance steadily improved and got the men’s singles title in the finals, but in the 1999 World Championships the men’s singles blew up against France’s Eloi, the men’s doubles won the runner-up with Yan Sen, and the mixed doubles teamed up with Wang Nan again and got the bronze medal again.
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Due to the poor performance in the 1999 World Series and World Cup men’s singles, Wang Liqin finally fell out of the 2000 Sydney Olympics singles lineup as the world’s top-ranked player, but still participated in the men’s doubles and won the gold medal with Yan Sen, realizing the dream of Olympic champions; not long ago, Wang Liqin was also among the Chinese team’s World Series team mainstays.
In 2001, Wang Liqin won his first gold medal in the World Series, and in one breath, he got 3 gold medals in men’s team, men’s singles and men’s doubles; he won the men’s doubles in 2003, and won the men’s team gold medal with his teammates in 2004, 2006 and 2008, and won the men’s team gold medal with his partner Guo Yue in the mixed doubles in 2005 and 2007, and won the men’s singles in 2 times.
In addition, Wang Liqin has also topped the World Cup team competition 3 times and won the Olympic team gold medal once, totaling 16 world championship titles in his career.
After entering the 21st century, the Chinese table tennis team in the first four sessions of the World Series only Wang Liqin got the singles title (in 2003 by the Austrian player Schlag), and only he realized all the 4 major items on top (Ma Lin did not get the men’s singles, Wang Hao did not get the mixed doubles, and the rest of the gap is even bigger), and thus was known as the “King of the World Series” by many fans. “.
In terms of technical playing style and physical quality, Wang Liqin is indeed very adaptable to the World Series which has many opponents and a long schedule, coupled with the fact that ITTF’s measures such as changing the size of the ball and the uncovered serve do not have much impact on him, which makes him able to take advantage of the tournament like a fish to water.
On the contrary, Wang Liqin in the Olympic Games, the World Cup men’s singles program on the performance of the relative inferior: short, quick decision is not its strong point, steady and steady, strength for the king is Wang Liqin’s style.
After his retirement, Wang Liqin has long been rooted in the Shanghai local table tennis team as a key position in 2025 officially succeeded Liu Guoliang as the new chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, and he ushered in the first “big test” is the Doha World Tournament.
As said before, the Chinese table tennis team is facing a series of new problems that need to be solved, and the results of the World Series is the best test of the whole team and the new leadership team of the Association, in the core of the position of Wang Liqin is naturally the center of everyone’s attention, then we think that after the role of Wang Liqin can be converted to the World Series to create a new splendor? How many titles do you think China can win this time?
