On May 26, Beijing time, Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha defeated Zhang Benzhihe/Hina Hayata 3-0 to defend the mixed doubles title. Now the peak battle of mixed doubles in the world table tennis is a contest between these two pairs of Chinese and Japanese players. The Chinese team has learned the bitter lesson of losing gold in mixed doubles at the last Tokyo Olympics, and the mixed doubles session has made very full preparations as the Paris Olympics are approaching. Xiao Zhan's guide was sent to specifically keep an eye on the mixed doubles, and it seems that the effect is still obvious. Also be wary of the Japanese team's summary and counterattack, next year's Paris Olympics mixed doubles final, these two pairs are likely to have a more important fight.
Fair competition has become a Sino-Japanese consensus
In the last Olympic cycle, the Chinese team had a strategic deviation in order to "guarantee" the new Olympic mixed doubles gold medal. Our policy at that time was to try not to let the main Olympic team play trion, thinking that it was easy to make things happen, so we specially arranged for veterans Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen to specialize in mixed doubles. However, due to a combination of factors such as age and injury, the duo of Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen won almost 99% of the matches since the group pair, but suddenly accidentally dropped the chain at a critical moment in the Tokyo final. So much so that in the subsequent women's team competition, Guoping also had to use the P card and replace Liu Shiwen with Wang Manyu, which ensured the stability of the women's team.
In the Tokyo cycle, Japan's Mimato Ito and Hayabusa Mizutani are both singles, team, and mixed doubles. When it came to the Paris cycle, everyone reached a consensus that they would not deliberately arrange anything, and that they would have many of them. After tonight's mixed doubles final, Wang Chuqin said that this time, he and Sun Yingsha and the coaching staff of the team have paid too much for the mixed doubles, and only they know the taste.
Winning the mixed doubles title is just one part of the plan, and both Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin will immediately plunge into the more brutal singles quarterfinals. On the Japanese team's side, Tomokazu Chang and Hina Hayata are the same, and the competition in singles is more brutal and fierce. And tomorrow morning, Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin also have semi-final tasks in women's doubles and men's doubles, and mixed doubles is not all of Sha Tou.
Efficient preparation, Paris mixed doubles and expected
The senior management of the national table tennis recently arranged Xiao Zhan to catch the mixed doubles, which is full of ideas, that is, to win back the mixed doubles gold medal that was not won in the last Olympic Games in Paris next year. An Olympic mixed doubles team can only play a pair, which objectively increases the uncertainty of the competition. In addition to the fixed personnel and combination, how to prepare for the battle in a targeted manner, especially what tactics and playing styles are made for the main opponent, is more important.
Today's Durban mixed doubles final, Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha can be said to be a complete sense of quick victory, the content of the match also fully reflects the familiarity of the Chinese team coach with the opponent, Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha's control of the situation, and the effective suppression of the opponent's characteristics and momentum has reached a very high height.
Of course, next year's mixed doubles final at the Paris Olympics will be a seven-game tiebreaker, and the seven-game match is slightly different from the five-game game, I believe our coaching staff is already thinking about and laying out related issues.
This time at the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban, Lin Shidong/Qu Man lost 1-3 to Tomokazu Zhang/Hina Hayata in the semifinals. But to see that Kuman is a young general born in 2004, Lin Shidong was born in 2005, the anime group is younger than Zhang Benzhihe in age, the anime lost this competition but the future growth space is expected, maybe the next time Lin Shidong / Kuman against the Japanese pair, you can win them.