In the Paris Olympics that ended in August this year, the Chinese table tennis team won a sweep of the hardware, showing a strong dominance, but also in this competition, Fan Zhendong finally realised the Smash dream, won the men’s singles event title.
However, after the tournament, Fan Zhendong wrote that ‘11 years of international competitions, just like the 11 points of the field, there is a beginning and an end’, and later said that ‘there is absolutely no consideration’ for the next Olympic Games, followed by the withdrawal of the WTT Macao Championships, the WTT China Smash, the Asian Championships also do not participate, many fans can not help but speculate: just ascended to the peak of his career, he will retire in the near future?
Personally, even if Fan Zhendong does have this idea, but the Chinese table tennis team’s needs and his sense of responsibility may not make it really retired, now he may be three years ago Malone, and Malone’s experience back then can also be a reference now.
Chinese table tennis team friends know that in 2021, Ma Long was in high spirits, with the age of 32 years old, crowned the men’s singles crown in the Tokyo Olympics, and became the only ‘double grand slam’ winner in the men’s table tennis world. But soon after, Ma Long, along with two other veterans Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen, retreated and gave up their qualification for the World Series in Houston.
Objectively speaking, Xu Xin, Liu Shiwen’s strength has declined significantly, and also suffered a defeat in the Tokyo Olympics, lost the mixed doubles gold medal, so even if the normal competition may not be selected for the Houston World Series, even if the competition is afraid that it is also difficult to achieve good results.
But Ma Long is different, at that time he only in the Olympic Games on the top, proved his comprehensive strength is still better than Fan Zhendong and other young people, but he also gave up to play, indeed, the fans were shocked.
However, Ma Long’s ‘departure’ did not last long, on the one hand, he still participated in many other tournaments, on the other hand, after the arrival of 2022, Ma Long returned to the Chengdu World Series men’s main lineup, and then continued to fight in the Durban World Series singles, the Paris Olympics team, and the World Cup, the Asian Championships also played, and is still firmly seated in the country’s main position. The main position of the Bing, this is why?
The reason is very simple, the athlete who replaced Ma Long in the 2021 World Series in Houston was Zhou Qihao, however, he was eliminated from the tournament after only two rounds, only stopping at the top 64 of the men’s singles.
Objectively speaking, Zhou Qihao’s luck was also relatively poor, the second match of the World Series met the Chinese table tennis team’s arch rival, German World Champion Timo Boll, and the loss was not unfair, the problem is that his other external results that year were also very bad, and on this also want to replace Ma Long? Obviously not realistic.
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At the end of 2021, 2022 early Chinese table tennis team situation, Zhou Qihao has been considered a non-main force in the existence of the outstanding, beat Ma Long, Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, Liang Jingkun and other top players, as for the performance of other people’s foreign war can not be talked about how much better than Zhou Qihao, the results of the internal war is also not as good as him, it is even more difficult to get reuse.
It is in this case, the Chinese table tennis team had to invite Ma Long back to the main layer, coupled with Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan’s performance has been high not low, so Ma Long has been playing until the end of the Paris Olympics, so far has not retired.
Now Fan Zhendong although the intention to retire, but the age of the men’s team echelon construction may not be as good as three years ago, outside the Association of male players to the Chinese table tennis team to create more pressure, if the juniors and the year of Zhou Qihao as the same top up, Fan Zhendong I am afraid that can not be retired.
