0:4 defeat to teammate Wang Chuqin, a game that originally seemed normal, but in the eyes of some people, it was not normal, so the trumped-up hat was buttoned on Ma Long's head: play match-fixing!
Opening the mouth is "playing match-fixing", where is the evidence of spraying people? In the eyes of these people, today's Ma Long loses or wins, it is not normal, winning is to hinder the development of future generations, indicating that the national table tennis men's team has no successors; Losing and saying that he played "match-fixing", Malone is so difficult!
Once upon a time, Malone was synonymous with champions. Internationally, he is the "king of the Open" and a two-lap Grand Slam winner. In the domestic arena, he is the "king of table top winning rate", and he is the brightest star of the National Games and the National Championships. Brilliant, so that Ma Long continues to create the history of national table tennis and even the international table tennis world; Love makes Ma Long an evergreen tree unprecedented in China's table tennis world.
Entering the Paris Olympic cycle, Malone chose to stick to it. Love is only feelings, competitive sports have always been the survival of the fittest, in addition to love but also have strength, today's Ma Long, although no longer the king, but still one of the top masters in the men's table tennis world. The world ranking reflects the competitiveness of an athlete in the recent period, and Ma Long still ranks fourth in the singles world ranking in his absence from the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships, which shows his competitiveness. A word of caution: In the latest week of world rankings released on Tuesday, Malone will rise to third in the men's singles rankings. Facts speak louder than words, Ma Long, who is about to turn 35, although he is not "old" at an advanced age.
Let's get back to business. In the men's singles final of the WTT Championship Macau held on the evening of the 23rd, the 0:4 disparity made Ma Long once again encounter a "storm" from the Internet, and the trolls determined that Ma Long "played match-fixing" for a simple reason: he could not lose 0:4 to Wang Chuqin.
What is the logic of this, please? With Ma Long's comprehensive strength, the probability of losing 0:4 to Wang Chuqin is indeed not large, he may also win, and the small probability of losing the score is evidence that Ma Long "played match-fixing"?
The arena is unpredictable, affecting the score of a table tennis game, in addition to the strength, state, playing style of the two sides, as well as the luck of the on-the-field play and even the key ball. If the verdict is based on the probability of the score appearing, is there still a game? If we extrapolate according to the thinking of those online "judges", Sun Yingsha defeated Chen Meng 4:0 in the WTT Championship Xinxiang Station a week ago, and she was beaten by Chen Meng at the WTT Championship Macau Station two days ago with the same score and color, and there was a huge gap in the scores of the two matches in 7 days, how to explain it? Also, in the past two years, Ma Long has been difficult to defeat Fan Zhendong, a few days ago Little Fat lost to French rookie Lebrun, the next day Ma Long tamed this dark horse, with the thinking of those trolls, is Fan Zhendong deliberately losing, or is Lebrun and Ma Long playing match-fixing? The French flew thousands of miles to China to compete, just to let Maron go?
The trolls were libels, which was a slander against Ma Long and Wang Chuqin.
What motivates Malone to play match-fixing? For him, who is determined to compete for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, achieving good results and improving the ranking are the most important at present, and the WTT champion and runner-up winner receive 1,000 points and 700 points respectively, and Malone has no reason to automatically give up the championship points in front of him.
The 35-year-old is still a good man in the international arena, but he is in the twilight of his sport, and he has not won the international singles title for 20 months, most recently at the Tokyo Olympics in August 2021. Ma Long at his peak, not only good at foreign wars, but also a good hand in civil war, the champion of the National Games and the National Championships has tasted it, and he is also the king of the winning rate of many table tennis super leagues. Today's Ma Long is no longer the No. 1 seed in China's men's table tennis in terms of strength, but his superior experience and top strength make him still one of the indispensable main forces of national table tennis.
At present, Ma Long's strength may be below Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin, and may not even be higher than Liang Jingkun and Lin Gaoyuan, plus teammates know each other, and Ma Long's civil war achievements in these backgrounds are likely to be inferior to foreign wars. Wang Chuqin is not as famous as Ma Long, but their past record is that the "big head" is clearly superior, the two have met 7 times before the final in Macau, Ma Long is 2-5 and has finished the last 3 matches, which is obviously at a disadvantage. It can be seen that it is completely normal for Macau to lose 0:4 in the final.
Historically, there is indeed a phenomenon of "match-fixing", which occurs under two conditions.
The first is to pursue the maximum probability of winning gold in national table tennis. Take the women's singles at the 1988 Seoul Olympics as an example, when China's Jiao Zhimin, Chen Jing, Li Huifen and former Czechoslovak's Hrakhova reached the semifinals, and two semifinals, Jiao Zhimin met Li Huifen and Chen Jing faced Hrakhova. According to the results of each other at that time, Jiao Zhimin had a great chance of winning against Li Huifen, but in the 1987 World Table Tennis Championships she lost to Hrakhova, considering that the two semifinals Jiao Li battle was played first, the national table tennis decision-making level asked Jiao Zhimin to give up the ball in order to pursue the maximum probability of winning gold.
In the 1987 World Table Tennis Championships women's singles semifinals, the 2004 Olympic men's singles semifinals and other competitions, the national table tennis has handicap behavior, the purpose is also to pursue the maximization of the probability of winning gold.
The second is to enhance the national table tennis brand and comfort heroes. 60 years ago the World Championships men's singles final Zhuang Zedong VS Li Furong, 40 years ago World Table Tennis Championships men's singles final Guo Yuehua VS Cai Zhenhua, these two games gold medals have fallen into the pockets of Chinese players in advance, the purpose of the ball is to shape the core of the national table tennis or a kind of comfort to the players who have made sacrifices. The WTT Championship is far from the world's top competition, not to mention Wang Chuqin tasted the Macau championship last year, he also won the championship in the higher-level WTT World Cup, whether it is objective conditions or subjective conditions, there is no need for Ma Long to give the ball, saying that Ma Long "plays match-fixing" is not only a slanderous slander of the famous player, but also disrespectful to Wang Chuqin.
Because the score is one-sided, the hat of "match-fixing" is forced to Ma Long's head, the speculation and conjecture of the trolls, after online fermentation, will affect the judgment of many people, these people may not watch this game, and even do not care about the dynamics of the national table tennis, but are keen to follow the trend and coax, so Ma Long's "match-fixing" is getting hotter and hotter on the Internet.
"There are many people who are popular". Nowadays, some people often make comments on sports celebrities without evidence, and even personally attack, disrupting the order of information dissemination and destroying the ecology of online public opinion, which are already illegal acts that are seriously harmful and have a bad impact, and in serious cases, they will constitute the crime of defamation.
The emergence of the Internet provides a fast and convenient interactive platform for those who have never known each other, but the interaction must keep the bottom line of reason, objectively and impartially examine a game, comment on athletes, activate the atmosphere of watching football, enhance the charm of sports, and jointly create a positive, healthy and civilized public opinion environment. (Wang Quanli)