赛点 | 被“大头”连破两纪录，樊振东摔得不轻，他能夺大满贯吗
At the beginning of the Olympic year, Fan Zhendong encountered a big problem: in the men's singles final of the WTT men's finals held on the evening of January 5, he lost 0:4 to Wang Chuqin, who was three years younger than him. Looking at the history of Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin's confrontation, this is the first time he has lost to the other side, and it is also the first time that he has suffered consecutive defeats, and what this means for Fan Zhendong, who is aiming to hit the Grand Slam, is self-evident.
Like Ma Long, Fan Zhendong is also a champion professional, he has singles championships such as the World Table Tennis Championships, the World Cup, the Finals, the Grand Slam, the Asian Games, the Asian Championships, the National Games, and the National Championships, and he only lacks 1 gold medal in his medal chest - the Olympic singles champion. The Tokyo Olympics more than two years ago were supposed to be a good opportunity for Fan Zhendong to be crowned a Grand Slam or even a Grand Slam, when he was reversed by Ma Long with a 2-1 lead.
After the Tokyo Olympics, Ma Long, who is in his thirties, has passed his prime, and Fan Zhendong, who is in the golden period of his sports career, has become the most eye-catching male table tennis player in the international arena, and he has won the men's singles championship in top events such as the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships, the 2022 Singapore Grand Slam, the 2023 Singapore Grand Slam, and the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships.
However, Fan Zhendong has not had a good time on the court in recent months: in early September last year, he was reversed by Ma Long 2:3 in the singles final of the Asian Championships, and a month later he was pulled down by Wang Chuqin 4:3 in the singles final of the Hangzhou Asian Games.
In recent years, Fan Zhendong's 0:4 defeat to the opponent is rare, before he and Wang Chuqin in the international arena with 9 wins and 3 losses in the lead, the past 12 times against Fan Zhendong has a 3:0 record of defeating the opponent, but also three consecutive wins or even five consecutive wins, never Wang Chuqin won consecutive wins or clean sheets. However, the situation has changed dramatically in recent months, with Fan Zhendong losing twice in the Hangzhou Asian Games and finals, including a 0:4 defeat in the finals, the two records of "Little Fat" had to come to an end.
It's normal that records are always broken, and Fan Zhendong also set some records back then: the youngest to win the world championship, the first to win the men's singles World Cup three times in a row...... Now, can Fan Zhendong, who is only one step away from a Grand Slam or even a Grand Slam, surpass himself?
In history, there are Waldner, Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui, Zhang Jike, Ma Long 5 people sitting on the men's Grand Slam throne, and there are 5 people who are only one step away from the Grand Slam: Jiang Jialiang, Persson, Gai Ting, Ma Lin, Wang Hao, the most regrettable of the five should be Wang Hao, he has entered the men's singles finals for three consecutive Olympic Games, but unfortunately they are only one step behind. Can Fan Zhendong become the sixth men's Grand Slam winner in history?
At present, Fan Zhendong's situation is somewhat similar to Wang Hao more than 10 years ago: he encountered the attack of veterans and rookies. The 2004 Athens Olympics lost to Liu Chengmin was a painful loss, and the last two Olympic Games were blocked by the brothers: the 2008 Beijing Olympics lost to the senior brother Ma Lin, and the 2012 London Olympics lost to the younger brother Zhang Jike. Nowadays, Fan Zhendong is also being attacked by Ma Long and Wang Chuqin, can he solve this problem?
If the first two games were successively pulled off by Ma Long and Wang Chuqin with a score of 2:3 and 3:4, which had more to do with his poor performance at critical moments, then this time he was beaten by Wang Chuqin 0:4, and the key problem was that he was caught by the opponent "seven inches". Throughout the game, Fan Zhendong has been led by the nose of the other party, giving people a feeling of being unable to make it hard, and losing 4 games in a row, which is similar to Wang Hao's defeat to Liu Chengmin at the Athens Olympics, before Wang Hao and Liu Chengmin's head-to-head record was 6 wins. The many encounters after the Athens Olympics also had obvious advantages, but the defeat in the most critical match of the two sides' sports careers left Wang Hao with a lifetime of regrets.
Compared with Wang Hao, Fan Zhendong still has a chance to prove himself, after all, the finals are not the Olympics, after all, there is still half a year before the Paris Olympics. In the next six months, see how Fan Zhendong makes a move.