On January 9, Beijing time, the 2022 Japanese Table Tennis T League came to a temporary end, but the national table tennis rival Zhang Benzhihe still did not appear - since participating in the WTT World Cup final in early December last year, Zhang Benzhihe has been hanging up the exemption card, missing 4 consecutive T League matches, and his KM Tokyo team has only achieved a record of 2 wins and 2 losses, and the performance is average.
Since Zhang Benzhi has been admitted to Waseda University, a well-known university in Japan, he has indeed been a bit inseparable recently. However, at the end of January, he will officially return to the field and play in the three events of Japan's table tennis national championships, and he will inevitably regain his strength and continue to attack the championship this time after losing three consecutive years of upset defeat and missing the men's singles gold medal: so can he get his wish?
As we all know, although Zhang Benzhihe is already a member of the world table tennis world, he is very young: born in 2003, he is not yet 19 years old, and he has been participating in the World Series as a junior high school student and a high school student, and has achieved good results in the quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis Championships, the runner-up of the World Cup, and the champion of the finals, which is indeed too precocious.
However, due to the strict requirements of his mother Zhang Ling, Zhang Benzhihe had to spend a lot of time learning cultural knowledge in order to be admitted to the ideal university, although he did not reach the first goal (to study at the University of Tokyo), but being admitted to Waseda was also a good choice for him.
In the WTT World Cup final from December 4 to 7 last year, Zhang Benzhihe's form has rebounded, and he has reached the final all the way, although he lost to Fan Zhendong and did not win the championship, but this is much better than his early exit at the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Houston World Table Tennis Championships.
After the WTT World Cup final, the Japanese Table Tennis T League made a comeback, km Tokyo Club participated in the duel on December 12, 21, 25, 2021 and January 9, 2022 respectively, and as a result, we did not see their number one main player Zhang Benzhihe, so the highly anticipated duel - Zhang Benzhi and VS Hao Shuai naturally did not have the opportunity to stage.
According to the arrangement, Japan's new national championship will start from January 24 to 30, and this is an event that all Japanese table tennis players will not give up lightly, a total of 972 people have signed up this year, and Zhang Benzhihe has appeared in the men's singles, men's doubles (partner Masataka Morien), and mixed doubles (partner Hayata Hina) in the list.
In the 2019, 2020 and 2021 championships, Zhang Benzhi and his consecutive losses to Yuya Oshima, Yukiya Utada, and Reiki Kawa did not win the men's singles gold medal, but he has obviously recovered in the WTT World Cup final, and may be able to regain the national championship title that he lost for three years.
It is worth mentioning that the WTT Macau Tournament will be held from January 19 to 23, and its Chinese table tennis will send most of the world champions to participate, and the time is also avoided from the Japanese championships, so many fans are also looking forward to Zhang Benzhihe, Ito Mimachi and others to register and compete with the Chinese team.
However, at present, the interval between the two events is too short, Japanese athletes are unlikely to delay their chances of impacting the national championship for a event without points, and the next February will host the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the table tennis world is not expected to hold any important events, so we may not see Zhang Benzhi and challenge the Chinese team again until March at the earliest.
So before that, is it optimistic that he can win the Japanese national championship? Feel free to leave a message and write your predictions!