The 2021 Houston World Table Tennis Championships is in full swing, and on November 24, a super-low score broke out on the men's singles field - South Korea's famous player and No. 9 seeded player Zhang Yuzhen did not play well, and even lost 3-4 to the 34-year-old Russian veteran Skachekov in the first round, and only lost 2 points in the decider, thus becoming the highest ranking among the currently eliminated athletes.
As a strong enemy who has defeated Zhang Jike, Xu Xin and many other national table tennis players, Zhang Yuzhen was once targeted and guarded by Liu Guoliang, but unexpectedly the last World Table Tennis Championships stopped in the men's singles quarterfinals, and this session was tragically "a round of travel", it seems that it is really not in good shape, and it is difficult to be a big task at present!
Born in 1996, Zhang Yuzhen is the best of the Korean men's table tennis middle generation, as early as the Rio Olympic cycle because of the defeat of the Grand Slam Zhang Jike became famous, when his translated name was still "Zhang Yuzhen"; after the arrival of the Tokyo Olympic cycle, Zhang Yuzhen continued to improve, once won the open men's singles, men's doubles, mixed doubles championships, which was the first time in the history of table tennis at that time.
In 2018, when Liu Guoliang became the chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, he specifically named the names of several strong enemies of foreign associations, and Zhang Yuzhen was listed among them, along with Zhang Benzhihe, Ocharov and others, which shows his position in Liu Guoliang's heart.
However, with the advancement of time, Zhang Yuzhen's achievements not only did not increase, but also did not grow as much as a year. At the 2019 Budapest World Table Tennis Championships, Zhang Yuzhen was tragically eliminated by his brother An Zaixian in a very good signing situation, and lost the men's singles medal; and two years later, his performance was even worse, and he was actually out of the "round trip" at the Houston World Table Tennis Championships.
The athlete who defeated Zhang Yuzhen this time, Skachekov, is a 34-year-old veteran, ranked 53rd in the world, usually there is no decent result, but he did not expect to die Zhang Yuzhen succeeded, 4-3 successfully won the promotion (11-8, 7-11, 15-17, 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 12-10), the score is quite close, it is really thrilling!
It is worth mentioning that An Zaixian, who eliminated Zhang Yuzhen at the last World Table Tennis Championships, also "a round trip" this year, and it was also a bitter battle 7 innings, losing to the American young player Kanek - it seems that they are really difficult brothers. The South Korean team originally did not send Jung Young-sik to compete, and now it has lost two major players, and the men's singles situation is very unoptimistic!
Next, Zhang Yuzhen can only concentrate on seeking a breakthrough in the doubles project, so can he lose the East Corner and harvest the Mulberry Yu? Let's wait and see what happens!