Friends who pay attention to the table tennis world know that in recent years, the reserve force construction of the Chinese men's team has been controversial, and Ma Long, born in 1988, was invited back by the coaching staff after withdrawing from the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships, and was continuously selected into the list of the 2022 and 2023 World Table Tennis Championships, which shows that the growth rate of young juniors is indeed somewhat slow.
However, as he gets older, Malone's form is also significantly declining, and if Malone officially retires after the Paris Olympics, who is most likely to become the new workhorse? At present, Zhou Qihao, Lin Shidong, and Xiang Peng are all making efforts, and the competition is very fierce!
As early as 2021, Zhou Qihao (born in 1997) has actually become the main team of the men's team - that year, his civil war performance exploded, winning Liang Jingkun, Ma Long, Fan Zhendong in the Xinxiang Direct Tournament to win the championship, just met Ma Long and Xu Xin withdrew from the Houston World Table Tennis Championships, so Zhou Qihao became one of the five main singles players.
But embarrassingly, Zhou Qihao was eliminated by German veteran Boll in the second round of the World Table Tennis Championships, coupled with the extreme collapse of the performance of other foreign battles, so he was soon marginalized, and the coaching staff also decided to continue to use Ma Long in the 2022 and 2023 World Table Tennis Championships.
After the arrival of 2023, Xiang Peng (born in 2003) once squeezed Lin Gaoyuan and was selected for the men's singles event of the Asian qualifiers of the Durban World Table Tennis Championships, when many fans believed that Lin Gaoyuan, who did not perform well in last year's foreign battle, was about to bid farewell to the main team.
However, Xiang Peng performed mediocrely in the subsequent international competitions, losing to Hugo and others, and his previous proudest external battle was to defeat Zhang Benzhihe, but this year he lost to Zhang Benzhihe, which inevitably led to a sharp decline in his position in the hearts of the coaching staff, at which time Lin Shidong (born in 2005) began to rise and also had the possibility of attacking the top five positions.
Compared with Zhou Qihao and Xiang Peng, Lin Shidong is younger, but his results are not bad at all, and he has defeated world champions such as Xu Xin, Lin Gaoyuan, and Ochalov, but he fluctuates more in 2023, with big wins and fiasco, but Lin Gaoyuan has maintained excellent foreign battles this year, and finally he got the men's singles qualification for the World Table Tennis Championships.
After the World Table Tennis Championships, Zhou Qihao, who was regarded by many fans as having already "entered the cold palace", broke out again, not only won the championship of a competition, but also defeated Ma Long, Ochalov and other famous players, and once again launched an impact on the top five teams, really unexpected!
At present, it seems that Zhou Qihao, Xiang Peng, Lin Shidong do have the possibility of impacting the main force, but there are not so many positions that can be vacated, originally everyone thought that at most Ma Long, Lin Gaoyuan two faded, but at present, it seems that Ma Long has a high probability of playing after the 2024 Olympic Games, and Lin Gaoyuan is now in good shape, and even defeated Fan Zhendong to win the championship not long ago.
If the time drags on, the oldest Zhou Qihao will definitely be more unfavorable, but at present, his upper limit of results is higher than Xiang Peng and Lin Shidong, it can only be said that everyone has their own strengths, and it is really difficult to predict who will become the final winner in the short term.
But in the long run, it may only be a matter of time before Xiang Peng and Lin Shidong enter the top five, so let's wait and see together!