The Frankfurt Championship in Germany, as the highest level of WTT event, enjoys the characteristics of high points and championship bonuses, and has been actively participated by many table tennis masters around the world, this time the national table tennis coaching staff also sent the strongest lineup, the top 4 of the national table tennis men's and women's teams all appeared, but on the 4th day of the game, the national table tennis encountered a big crisis, and 3 world champions were eliminated in one day, of which the men's team is now only Wang Chuqin and Ma Long
The three eliminated world champions are Fan Zhendong, Liang Jingkun and Chen Meng, among which Fan Zhendong, as the world's No. 1 men's singles champion, stopped in the round of 16 this time, which is the most shocking! And his opponent is the 33-year-old South Korean veteran Lee Sang-so, if according to the strength of the two, Fan Zhendong's loss to Li Sang-so is definitely a big upset, Li Shangzhu is not only older than Fan Zhendong, but he has never won against Fan Zhendong when he was young, and the current world ranking is not close to Fan Zhendong, so why did this game break out such an upset?
Let's first briefly review the four games of the game, from the first game Fan Zhendong entered the state very slowly, and the pressureless Li Shangzhu took advantage of the victory to chase the first game 11:7, although Fan Zhendong won the second game 11:9, but in the second game Wang Hao saw that Fan Zhendong's state was not right, and called a timeout halfway. In the back, Lee Sang-so won the third game 11-8, and in the most crucial fourth game, Lee Sang-so sealed the final victory with the encouragement of constant yelling
After the game, too many fans want to hear why Fan Zhendong lost the game, so in this regard, Fan Zhendong not only revealed the reason, but also publicly expressed dissatisfaction, Fan Zhendong claimed that the two games in Frankfurt were completely different from his expectations, although he also tried to make adjustments many times in the process, but some key points were not won, and the situation became passive, obviously felt the pressure of the opponent, although he also had the opportunity to turn the tables, but still failed to grasp the opportunity, especially today's strain was slow, Some of the options were not resolute enough
What's more interesting is that Fan Zhendong also claimed that "the recent competition is relatively intensive, and I hope to adjust my state through a period of time to meet the final WTT Doha Finals!" Before the Hangzhou Asian Games, Fan Zhendong, as the first brother of the national table tennis men's team, had the greatest intensity in training and competition, so after playing the Hangzhou Asian Games, there was a serious muscle strain problem, so he was forced to withdraw from the WTT Lanzhou Star Match
After a short break, Fan Zhendong started the journey of the 2023 Yangzhou National Championships on behalf of the Shanghai Real Estate Group team, and at the National Championships, another national table tennis player, Lin Gaoyuan, also retired due to injury due to intensive game problems, and after playing the Yangzhou National Championships, Fan Zhendong flew to Frankfurt to start the WTT Championships, so in the past 2 months, the schedules and competitions of the main national table tennis players have been too busy, and Fan Zhendong seems to have revealed his dissatisfaction
So Fan Zhendong's words, it is obvious that Liu Guoliang, as the chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, understood, so in the 2023 WTT Regular Challenge Taiyuan Station announced by the national table tennis coaching staff recently on November 6, Fan Zhendong's name did not appear in the squad, and he will be given enough rest and will be led by Wang Chuqin instead
Editor: Su Daqiang