In the early morning of March 29, Beijing time, the national table tennis relayed a good news after consecutive foreign defeats in the WTT Doha Star Competition: Zhao Zihao, a straight-shooting star, won 4 innings of a vicious battle, and the 40-year-old Chinese Taipei world champion Zhuang Zhiyuan was tragically "a round of travel" and was eliminated just after playing.
Since on the same day, Yuan Licen and Liu Dingshuo lost to Germany's Francesca and Nigeria's Aruna, so at present, there are only 3 players left in the Chinese team who are still competing in the men's singles event: Zhao Zihao, Zhou Qihao, and Xue Fei will continue to move forward to meet the strong enemies Francesca, Aruna, Kanek: Come on!
Born in 1981, Zhuang Zhiyuan is an old rival of national table tennis, and at the beginning of this century, he created a huge threat to Wang Liqin, Ma Lin, Wang Hao, and later defeated Ma Long, and won the gold medal of the national table tennis combination in the World Table Tennis Championships (partner Chen Jian'an).
However, as he grows older, Zhuang Zhiyuan's competitive state has also been significantly unstable, such as last year's three consecutive victories over Zhang Benzhihe and the runner-up in the Asian Championships for men's singles, but many other competitions have lost a mess. However, Lao Zhuang has a lot of experience in dealing with direct shooting players, and Ma Lin and Wang Hao have been planted in his hands, so Zhao Zihao is still facing a test.
After the game began, Zhuang Zhiyuan really played very well, leading Zhao Zihao, who was more than 15 years younger than himself, many times and taking the lead in getting the set point, but in the end he lost 10-12, and there was a visible reaction decline in his body, which was also a common disease of the veteran: it is difficult to mention the bravery of the year!
In the second set, Zhao Zihao continued to work hard, and won 11-5 quickly, with a 2-0 lead to force his predecessors into a desperate situation, but Zhuang Zhiyuan obviously did not intend to tie his hands and grab it, and then pulled back a city 11-7 in the third set, and the suspense of the game increased again.
In the fourth round of the big battle, Zhuang Zhiyuan created great difficulties for the juniors, although Zhao Zihao won the match point 10-8, but soon there was a psychological restlessness, continuous mistakes lost the ball, and was chased by the other side to a 10-10 draw. At the critical moment, Zhao Zihao stabilized his position and finally ended the battle with a narrow victory of 13-11, eliminating Zhuang Zhiyuan to advance to the men's singles round of 16.
Objectively speaking, today's duel Zhuang Zhiyuan played very well, if he could be a few years younger, maybe there would be a different ending. And then Zhao Zihao will face aruna, who is the African fierce general and eliminated the runner-up of the National Games, Liu Dingshuo: can he withstand the pressure and "avenge" his teammates? Let's wait and see: Come on!