On January 11, 2024, the table tennis WTT Doha Star Tournament continued, and the 26-year-old national table tennis star won the victory, Zhou Qihao swept Denmark's Gross 3-0, and then faced Germany's Qiu Dang.
Zhou Qihao's strength is not bad, although the ranking is only 22nd, but it has the possibility of defeating anyone, the biggest problem is that the on-the-spot performance fluctuates greatly, and it may often make people sweat for him, Zhou Qihao especially relies on on-the-spot play, this time focusing on singles, no signing up for other projects, foreign association masters gathered, how far Zhou Qihao can go, naturally became the focus of fans' attention.
It is worth mentioning that 16 members of the national table tennis team played in singles, Yuan Licen lost to Zhao Dacheng in the qualifying round, only Zhou Qihao needs to play in the first round, and the other players are directly promoted, the higher the world ranking, the fewer rounds played, which is considered to relieve part of the pressure for players who are also in the field, just last year Zhou Qihao defeated the German star Ocharov and won a regular challenge men's singles championship.
The opponent is the 31-year-old Danish player Jonathan Gross, ranked 30th in the world, the past performance against the national table tennis is average, winning the young player Xiang Peng, but there is no record of eliminating the main force, Gross is not the top level in the European table tennis world, although COSCO Taiwan is very threatening, but the first three boards are weak and have a poor sense of attack, there is no difficulty in this foreign war, it can be said that Zhou Qihao has a clear advantage.
After the start of the game, in the first game, Zhou Qihao gave full play to the advantages of the first three boards, avoiding hitting the middle and far platforms, Gross has not many methods, his own service rounds have no way, all rely on the quality of the single board hard fight, this must be passive, Zhou Qihao blasted out 11-4 to take the lead, Zhou Qihao's return ball is of high quality, and the connection speed is fast, Gross is difficult to keep up with the rhythm, and the score basically comes from the opponent's mistakes.
In the second game, Zhou Qihao still used the previous strategy, strengthening the change of rhythm, which made Gross feel awkward, but the added quality was not right, and he was completely unsuitable for the opponent's landing point, Zhou Qihao led 7-1, and then blasted out 11-5 to win another game, the difference in strength between the two is very obvious, and there are too few rounds that can be played after pulling up, and it is often Zhou Qihao who scores directly, and the whole process is easier than expected.
In the third game, Gross led 9-7, but was reversed by Zhou Qihao, ended the game 12-10, and finally swept Gross 3-0, the opponent in the next round is Qiu Dang, just before the men's finals, Qiu Dang won Lin Shidong and Liang Jingkun, and then lost to Wang Chuqin, leaving a deep impression on the outside fans.