Fan Zhendong, as the Olympic champion and the world's No. 1 player in men's singles, is a dazzling presence everywhere. As 2023 draws to a close, Fan Zhendong suddenly made the decision as he looked ahead to next year, and he was about to usher in the most difficult transformation of his career.
In 2023, Fan Zhendong can be described as a great achievement, leading other athletes of national table tennis to go south and north, went to Xinxiang in China to become the champion of the WTT Xinxiang Championship, and then went to the blessed land of Singapore, won the championship in the Singapore Grand Slam event, and finally showed his skills at the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban, defeating Liang Jingkun, Wang Chuqin and other world-class players all the way to win the championship trophy. It can be said that this year's champion Fan Zhendong won almost all of them.
Fan Zhendong was remarkable in the first half of the year, but there were fluctuations in the second half of the year. He was defeated by Ma Long in the Asian Championship final, and even paused directly when he was behind at the beginning of the second game, and it was obvious that he wanted to defeat Ma Long very much. In the Asian Games, Wang Chuqin fought hard for 7 rounds, and the last game was overturned when the score was leading, and you finally said such a sentence "It's a pity, but it's not a pity"
The WTT Frankfurt Championship met your opponent Lee Sang-so of South Korea, who was once inferior to you, and you unfortunately lost the game with a headband, and the Chengdu ITTF Mixed Team World Cup was defeated by Tomokazu Zhangmoto, and the whole country was sung.
Fan Zhendong is no longer good? Even the former coach said that there is no technical advantage anymore.
But looking at it, many of the losses were made to the finals, lost to their teammates, and the others were just minor problems, only losing to Lee Sang-so was a real loss. To sum up, Fan Zhendong is still very strong, but we want him to win all the time.
Eventually, he made a big change, he was going to transform – he wanted to be more involved in good causes.
At the end of this year, he gradually became active outside the arena to promote the spirit of national table tennis, and also came to Tsinghua University to communicate with the pillars of the country. I came to some elementary schools and played with primary school students to cultivate their interest in sports and become a sports powerhouse.
I think his decision is right, with the effect of celebrities, not only for himself, but also for the promotion of national table tennis and Chinese sports, good!