Wtt Singapore national table tennis first round matchup, Ma Long on the 11th against the Portuguese famous player
The World Table Tennis Federation (WTT) issued a special article to enthusiastically praise table tennis superstar Ma Long, and look forward to his first Grand Slam tournament in history and compose a new legend!
At 21:00 on March 11, 2022, Malone will participate in the first WTT Grand Slam tournament in history (against Portugal's Freitas). It's a new era of table tennis and Malone has the opportunity to make his mark on another sport. Will history be rewritten again at The Carnival in Singapore?
How long Malone will last, only time will tell. But for now, Malone's legend is far from over!
In the history of table tennis, the Olympic Games, the World Table Tennis Championships, the World Cup, the Asian Games, the Asian Championships, the Asian Cup, the Tour Finals and the Chinese National Games, Ma is the first male athlete to win every singles title.
He is one of the big three winners of the men's singles title at the World Table Tennis Championships three times. He won consecutive Olympic gold medals in men's singles. He was also the first athlete in the history of Olympic table tennis to win a gold medal five times. Add to that the players with the most singles titles in the history of the ITTF World Tour.
Chinese media called him "the strongest on the surface," a fitting nickname.
Born in Anshan, Liaoning Province, Ma Long has shown extraordinary talent in table tennis since he was a child and has quickly grown into one of the top and most popular players in China. He became famous at an early age, but his reputation among his peers wasn't necessarily because of his title. Rather, it was because of his self-discipline and hard work.
The Chinese table tennis team has never lacked champions, which is very important. But even among them, Malone is a well-known model athlete. He plays table tennis 365 days a year. In the training hall, he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave. He has always studied sports as a science with extraordinary diligence, hard work and care. In order to stay in the best condition, he has been looking for technological innovation. Even now that he is the captain of the team, he learns from the young athletes.
A particularly difficult time in his career, before he won his first major world title, there were also times when he doubted himself, under increasing pressure. Malone recalls that it was at a difficult stage: "I told myself that I was either going to stick with it or give up. I didn't give up the courage, so I kept going. ”
In 2015, at the age of 27, Malone finally won his first World Table Tennis Championships men's singles title. Subsequently, in the men's singles final of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Malone defeated Zhang Jike 4-0 to win the Olympic individual gold medal for the first time. Malone began a new phase of his career and embarked on a legendary path.
But all legends come with trials and challenges, and their forms and disguises vary. In 2019, Malone had to face a new opponent: physical injuries. In order to return to the field, Malone decided to go to Los Angeles for left knee and right wrist surgery. Before the surgery, he shaved his head in the hope that it would mark a new beginning and a new beginning.
After the surgery, he underwent a grueling rehabilitation program. Malone recalled: "On the first day of practice, I would vomit. It's a feeling of nausea throughout the body. I was so tired that I would go back to sleep when I got home at ten in the morning. ”
After eight months of recovery, the next test arrived. Will he still be the strongest on the surface? Any doubts were quickly dispelled. Malone won the men's singles and doubles titles (with Wang Chuqin) at the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships. The risks of surgery and the pain of recovery are worth it. A new journey has begun, followed by the Tokyo Olympics.
In the 2020 men's singles semi-finals in Tokyo, Malone played against German star Ocharov. For twelve years, Malone has maintained a record for a perfect total win over Ocha. This has led many to believe that the result will be inevitable. Not at all. The match was a fierce seven-inning competition. The Chinese superstar won the final set 11-9.
Malone said to himself after the game: "At the crucial moments, I always find a way to beat my opponents. He was tested both physically and mentally, against Fan Zhendong in the men's singles final. Fan Zhendong was nine years younger than Malone and entered the golden age of his athletic career.
Malone has a stable style of play, but he has changed his conservative strategy. He hadn't dared to take any risks in the past, but this time, he told himself he had to do it. According to the old tactics, at the hands of such an opponent who is eager to win, it will definitely lose. Malone took the initiative to attack.
The change worked. At the end of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Malone's legend added another honor: the first "hardware king" in the history of Olympic table tennis.
Malone's career has reaped all the possible successes that the sport can bring.
As Liu Guoliang said to him, "You are already the strongest, you don't need to compare yourself with any player now, but with the legends of the sport." ”
Now 33 years old, Malone is still rushing forward, creating more legendary moments.
On Malone's 33rd birthday last year, he wrote to his fans: "I still want to stand in front of the ping-pong table I love. I wanted to see all the possibilities I dreamed of and everything that my love for the sport brought with it. ”
In Focus：MA LONG，The Legend Continue......
Ping-Pong net Hu Qingyuan