Who is among the top players in the world table tennis world today
The only left-handed straight-ahead player?
Who is known as the "People's Artist" of table tennis?
Who was named a model worker in the national table tennis team?
The small body takes you in
The second exhibition hall of Shanghai Sports Museum
Common interpretation
Stroll through the second exhibition hall of the Shanghai Museum of Sport, "Olympic Lights", and get a glimpse of the collections of Shanghai's seventeen Olympic champions (until the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo). Among them, Xu Xin's display case is a pair of black rubber ping-pong rackets and balls with his autograph on it. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, Xu Xin played as the main force in the men's team competition and defended the championship. There are many more honors he has achieved, but people talk about not only his achievements, but also his amazing "fairy balls" on the court and the strips he contributed off the field. Fans nicknamed him "People's Artist". Today, we tell his story.
The refinement of "Golden Left Straight"
Teenager Xu Xin
Xu Xin was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province in 1990. In kindergarten, because of his lively nature, he liked to run and was selected by the teacher at a glance, and began to contact table tennis. Along with the talent of table tennis, there seems to be a talent for comedy. When he was young, he did not regard training as hard work, and every time he returned home, he had to report to his family about training. For example, when practicing a high-throwing serve, he said, "The ball should be thrown to three floors as high." While saying that, he also compared it to the demonstration, which made the whole family laugh.
In early 2002, Xu Xin followed his coach Tang Zhixian from Jiangsu to Shanghai and entered the Cao Yanhua Table Tennis Training School. Cao Yanhua was introduced earlier, is a veteran world champion, sweeping the 1980s table tennis sister. At first, she was not too optimistic about Xiao Xuxin, because since the reform of the 40mm big ball, the horizontal beat method of focusing on absolute strength has occupied the mainstream of table tennis, "playing straight board, too much loss". But the little teenager did not fear the aura of "one sister", once Cao Yanhua saw them training, he rushed up and said: "Principal Cao, I don't like training, I like to play games!" Xiao Xuxin's inadvertent words triggered Cao Yanhua's idea of running a first-line professional team at the school. Her own table tennis school was private, and there was no precedent for building a first-line professional team in a private school. When this idea was supported by the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau, a "Shanghai model" of social forces running training began to emerge.
Xu Xin and Cao Yanhua
Then again, although Xu Xin said at the time that he did not love training, in fact, he never gave up training. He is well aware of his goal, which is to enter the national team. Under the guidance and care of President Cao, Xu Xin grew rapidly. In February 2006, on the strong recommendation of Cao Yanhua, Xu Xin entered the national second team, and in October, he quickly entered the national first team. Why so fast? Because the left hand direct shot can be hit, it is too scarce.
The fame of the "artist"
Xu Xin's "Fairy Ball" part of the highlight video
The word fame seems to have a different interpretation for Xu Xin — his fame is not only large but also numerous. He is certainly not the most honored in the national table tennis team, but he must be the most "famous". In addition to the fairly straightforward "golden left hand", there are also "pythons", "people's artists", "blind monks" and so on. "Big Python" was the name of Liu Guoliang, the head coach of national table tennis at that time. Because his playing style is very similar to that of a big python, one is that he can wrap and bite the tenacity of the undead, and the other is because he is tall and long-armed, and the forehand can pull out a strong arc ball, sometimes it is still S-shaped, plus he has a large playing action and a flexible running, and is like a python circling and swimming on the field.
The traditional Chinese straight board emphasizes the first three boards, small fast spirit, generally serve, grab one, two or three simple and clear, either you die or I die, it is difficult to play "artistry". But Xu Xin's straight board is unique, he can retire from the stage with the forehand arc and the horizontal board players to hold each other, coupled with his long hands and legs and the running ability shown since kindergarten, so others can't kill him, and there are often multi-round middle and far platform standoffs, which makes the chance of various "fairy balls" appear greatly. What back to hit the ball, far platform attack, flying body to save the ball, side crutch snake ball, 42 board super long pull, etc., famous scenes are repeated, very ornamental. As a result, he was named a ping-pong "artist" that the people liked to see.
The cultivation of labor models
Xu Xin is the only left-handed direct shot in the national table tennis team, and the only left-handed direct shot player among the top masters of table tennis in the world today, who has once climbed to the first place in the world ranking and won the World Cup men's singles championship, which proves that his left hand direct shot has reached the extreme of the world. He is better known for his contributions in the team. In fact, Xu Xin has won many world championships, ranking second in the history of men's table tennis with 20 world championships, second only to Ma Long, who has 26 titles. But five of them were doubles titles and 14 team titles. No wonder fans want to ridicule "xu Xin to win the world", which makes Xu Xin's schedule often very close, to men's doubles, mixed doubles, men's team three-line combat.
2019 is a difficult year for Chinese men's table tennis. Ma Long was injured and Fan Zhendong was in a sluggish state, when Xu Xin, who was already a veteran, stood up and provoked the beam. At the Japan Open, he played 13 games in 3 days, including men's singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles, and played 6 games in a day. Amazingly, he has won all three games and won all three of his games, making it hard to believe that this is the state of a 29-year-old veteran. According to the data of the official website of the International Table Tennis Federation, Xu Xin broke out in full swing in 2019, playing a total of 132 games, with a record of 118 wins and 14 losses, a winning rate of 89%, and a total of 21 championships. This year, Xu Xin was industrious and powerful, and won the title of "National Table Tennis Labor Model". In October 2020, the People's Daily announced the list of national labor models and advanced workers, Xu Xin was honorably on the list, and the title of "labor model" was completely solidified.
At the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, Liu Shiwen wore a silver medal in the mixed doubles of ping-pong for Xu Xin, and Fan Zhendong, Ma Long and Xu Xin (right) won the gold medal of the men's team
At the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, the table tennis mixed doubles final attracted much attention, which was the first time that the Olympic Games set up a table tennis mixed doubles event, the first mixed doubles Olympic gold medal, and the Chinese team sent the world's no. 1 Xu Xin/Liu Shiwen combination. The final opponent was Japan's Mizutani Hayabusa/Ito Mishimasa, and In the end, Xu Xin/Liu Shiwen won the second place. It is indeed a pity that she did not win the championship, Liu Shiwen said sorry in front of the national audience several times, and head coach Liu Guoliang was red and swollen in the interview, and his words were choked. Xu Xin's sentence made people break the defense even more instantly: "We failed to give each of us a good ending." ”
This year, Xu Xin was 31 years old, and as an athlete, he was already a veteran and was already considering a happy ending. However, the game has only just begun, and there are still men's teams to play next. Xu Xin quickly came out of the defeat, he and Ma Long, Fan Zhendong formed the national table tennis men's team showed a strong dominance, won three consecutive games to sweep the German team, won the Chinese delegation's 35th gold medal in the Olympic Games, and also achieved the Olympic table tennis men's team four consecutive championships. Xu Xin, who picked up the beat, is still the teenager who shouted "I like the game" without accepting defeat, still the "artist" who made the game into a performance, and still the "golden left hand" who silently paid for the team. Two months later, Xu Xin's wife, Yao Yan, who was also a former member of the national table tennis team, gave birth to a daughter in Shanghai, and Xu Xin became a father of two children, and his face was full of happiness and joy.
Shanghai Sports Museum Exhibition Hall 2 "Olympic Light"
What a happy ending! Perhaps on the road of sports, there has never been a happy ending. Generations of athletes challenge strong hands, challenge limits, challenge themselves, and always look to higher goals. Those who come after will cover the footprints of those who came before them, and the new record will break the old record. On this long road full of glory, there will always be a period of twists and turns, a series of painful defeats, as long as the spirit of sports is there, it is too late to complete, it can be handed over to later people.
This is the last article in the "Listen to the Collection tell stories" table tennis series, starting from the origin of table tennis, we spent nine chapters, using the collection of the Shanghai Sports Museum as the introduction, telling a small story about table tennis, the story of a long string of shining names string together the history and inheritance of table tennis in shanghai. History is constantly being created, records will continue to be broken, and the torch of inheritance will continue from generation to generation. We don't need a happy ending right now. Because, all the past, is the prologue.
Text: Ping Pong World, Youth Shanghai, Oriental Sports Daily,
The official website of the Chinese Table Tennis Association
Photo: Xinhua News Agency, China News Service, Youth Shanghai,
Ping Pong Network, CCTV5, NetEase News
Video: Bilibili users "Look at this again"
Editors: Zhuang Qixin, Yang Ye
Review: Lu Jiaqi