On April 6th, the WTT Xinxiang Championship will start from April 9th to 15th, with only 3 days left! It is worth mentioning that after the WTT Xinxiang Championship, the national table tennis men's team and women's team will start continuous combat mode. According to the official schedule of WTT, the WTT Macau Championship and WTT Bangkok Star Challenge will be held after the Xinxiang Championship. In addition, the Durban World Table Tennis Championships will be held in late May. Although the strength of the national table tennis men's team and women's team is undoubted, in the face of such an intensive competition, the pressure of the national table tennis men's team is not small.
After the Tokyo Olympics, the "fault" problem of the national table tennis men's team is particularly serious, only Fan Zhendong can take on the heavy responsibility among the middle-generation players, Wang Chuqin and Liang Jingkun's state has always been unstable, and Lin Gaoyuan is not worth mentioning! Because of this, with Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen having taken a back seat, Ma Long continued to stay in the men's team and persevered. If Ma Long also takes a back seat or announces his retirement, the problems of the national table tennis men's team will immediately appear. However, from the current situation, the "inflection point" of Malone's career has appeared, and the countdown to retirement may be reached.
A few days ago, the WTT World Table Tennis Federation announced the latest world ranking, Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin ranked 1st and 2nd in the world ranking, Zhang Benzhihe temporarily ranked 3rd in the world ranking, and Ma Long ranked 4th in the world ranking! It is worth mentioning that Ma Long's world ranking in the last issue was still No. 3, ranking behind Fan Zhendong. After only 1 week, Malone dropped directly to No. 4 in the world ranking, which was really unexpected. In this regard, some fans believe that Ma Long's task has been basically completed, and it is only a matter of time before he retires.
In fact, after entering the Paris Olympic cycle, Mallon's retirement is already very obvious, it is only a matter of time! Ma Long, born in 1988, is 35 years old, and his physical fitness and competitive condition are rapidly declining. In this case, even if Ma Long insists on the 2024 Paris Olympics, the national table tennis coaching staff will not arrange for Ma Long to participate in the competition. Again, after the Tokyo Olympics, the reason why Ma Long did not choose to take a back seat or retire was because the national table tennis men's team needed him, and the younger generation of players had not yet come up.
Nowadays, Wang Chuqin's competition state is stabilizing, Liang Jingkun's competitive state has also improved, and everything is developing in a good direction! In addition, the national table tennis coaching staff is trying to cultivate a new generation of players such as Lin Shidong and Xiang Peng, and is also planning for the future. But then again, even if Malone announces his retirement someday in the future, his contribution to the national team will not disappear over time. Finally, do you think Ma Long will stay in the national team as a coach after retiring, or will he serve in the Asian Table Tennis Federation and the World Table Tennis Federation?