Table tennis WTT Grand Slam fierce battle is in full swing, Beijing time on March 8, 2022, the world table tennis championship men's doubles champion, Chinese Taipei's Chen Jian'an almost broke the cold, in the case of a 2-0 lead in a row lost 2 consecutive sets, almost by the unknown Croatian player Kojic reversed, fortunately in the decider or stabilized the position, and finally won 3-2 to get promoted.
Since Chen Jian'an is currently the only men's table tennis world champion to participate in the qualification round, his dynamics have aroused the attention of many fans and friends. Despite some difficulties, the 30-year-old veteran is still trying to defend his honor and continue to attack the qualification for the main tournament.
Born in 1991, Chen Jian'an is the strongest athlete in the Chinese Taipei team after Zhuang Zhiyuan and before Lin Yunru, he has beaten the national table tennis Grand Slam Zhang Jike in the men's singles, and the men's doubles has won the gold medal of the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships with Zhuang Zhiyuan, Wang Liqin/Zhou Yu, Ma Lin/Hao Shuai, and has also been in the limelight, but unfortunately, due to technical and age reasons, it has declined seriously in recent years.
In this Grand Slam, Chen Jian'an beat France's Alexandru 3-0 in the first round, and then met the Croatian veteran Kojic who was very close to his age and ranking (Chen Jian'an was 30 years old, ranked 85th in the world, Kojic was also 30 years old, ranked 98th in the world), and then launched a fierce duel.
After the start of the match, Chen Jian'an took the lead and took the lead in 11-7. In the second set, Kojic began to organize a counterattack, the two sides fought until the last 2 points to decide the winner, the result is still the world champion's superior skill, 11-9 narrow victory, Chen Jianan thus achieved a 2-0 lead, successfully forced the opponent into a desperate situation.
But just as Chen Jian'an's victory was in sight, the opponent began to threaten, and Kojic blasted out two consecutive 11-8 scores, which immediately dragged the game into the decider. Seeing that the situation was not good, Chen Jian'an stood firm, played his basic strengths, and finally locked in the victory with an 11-8 score, narrowly defeating his opponent to advance to the third round of the qualifiers.
From a technical point of view, Chen Jian'an's backhand system is not particularly advanced, still based on knocking and bouncing, which is very close to the men's singles runner-up of the Xinke World Table Tennis Championships, Moregold, but Chen Jian'an's forehand ability and tactical awareness are far inferior to this young junior, so the singles ceiling is general, and it is difficult to produce good results.
Chen Jian'an's opponent will be Belgian Martin, who will be able to advance to the main tournament as long as he wins one more game – so will there be a world champion upset during the qualifying stage of this Grand Slam? Let's wait and see!