After the Tokyo Olympics, many fans proposed that the national table tennis men's team take this opportunity to complete the replacement of the old and the new like the women's team. However, from the perspective of the actual situation of the team and the overall development trend, as well as the competitive pattern of the world table tennis, it is obvious that this idea is still difficult to achieve for the time being. This is caused by both the internal factors of the national table tennis team and the overall situation of the entire world men's table tennis. In short, even from the performance of the current Doha Star Challenge, The African brother Aruna, we can see some clues. From a certain point of view, although the national table tennis has been trying to create various opportunities for young players since 2019, especially foreign competition opportunities, the number of times players have seized opportunities is still too small. In the world arena, national table tennis not only needs a highly ranked star in the world, but also needs a hero who can fight hard battles and can break through the level continuously. Obviously, at present, in addition to Fan Zhendong and Ma Long, other players, from Liang Jingkun and Wang Chuqin, to Zhao Zihao, Liu Dingshuo, Zhou Qihao, and Yuan Licen, are not still such roles. The younger Xiang Peng and Lin Shidong, although the potential is very good, have also entered the key training mode in advance, but there is still a long way to go before they become a real lone hero.
I believe everyone has also seen that Aruna, as a brother in Africa, runs alone in major competitions. He doesn't have a team of coaches and service around him, and his partner is his backpack. With a love of table tennis, Aruna traveled from Rio to Tokyo and will definitely continue to stand on the field of the Paris Olympic Games in the future. At present, Liang Jingkun, Wang Chuqin, Zhou Qihao, Liu Dingshuo, Zhao Zihao, can not play their best state, or can not play beyond the level, may lose in front of Aruna, this Doha Star Challenge, Aruna even passed the national table tennis player three levels is a best proof.
It is not that the national table tennis coaching staff does not want to alternate between the old and the new, nor is it that Ma Long and Xu Xin do not have a sense of crisis. Both of them know that if young players are improving significantly, are competitive, and have more and more stable performances, and can withstand all kinds of hard battles, even if they love the table tennis arena very much, they may not have any expectations for continuing to stay in the national table tennis team and participate in various internal competitions. The biggest reason that supports them to stay is that they know that they are still competitive, and the young teammates, except for Fan Zhendong, can basically achieve the transcendence of them, not the complete sense of transcendence, others, for the time being, it is difficult to really walk ahead of them. Even if they can win them in the domestic arena or in the competition within the team, they dare not say that they can maintain continuous competitiveness in the world arena.
Just like Zhou Qihao, because he often played a very good performance in various internal pass-through competitions in China, he got the opportunity to participate in the singles competition of the World Table Tennis Championships, but the result was to lose the foreign war and get out early. Then this star challenge, the teammates of the main core layer did not come, not even Lin Shidong and Xiang Peng, but Zhou Qihao became the only seedling of the national table tennis men's team, and the two teammates had been defeated under the premise of Aruna's shooting, or failed to seize the best opportunity to prove themselves, not only lost in front of Aruna, but also a 0-3 defeat. This also shows from one side that our young players are now not a question of giving or not giving opportunities, but whether they can successfully seize the opportunities after being given. This is the core key to determining their future development prospects.
Here, we can only say that Ma Long and Xu Xin do not seem to be retired in a short period of time, they can give up some opportunities to participate in the young people, but since young people can't seize the opportunity themselves, why ask them to quit in advance when they are competitive, and do not have any expectations for the future? The problems and difficulties of the national table tennis men's team are indeed more than the national table tennis women's team. In this case, we, as fans, still need to remember Malone's words - "As long as you have love, you will always be the year of playing".