The 2024 ITTF Macao World Cup continues to compete in the first round of the knockout round, and the national table tennis players have mixed performances, with Ma Long, Chen Meng, and Lin Gaoyuan, the three world champions, advancing to the singles quarterfinals after defeating their respective opponents, while the women's singles world No. 3 Wang Yidi and the men's singles world No. 3 Liang Jingkun were both upset and missed the quarterfinals. Women's Singles World Champion Wang Yidi did not play well in the match against Japanese teenager Miwa Zhangmoto, he lost 1-4 to his opponent, missing the women's singles quarterfinals, and causing a big upset. Immediately after the men's singles world No. 3, Liang Jingkun, who has been strong recently, unexpectedly followed in the footsteps, he was up and down in the match with the Swedish star Carlberg, although he stubbornly tied the score when the score was 1-3 behind, but he was defeated in the decisive game, and finally lost the seventh game 6-11, losing to Carlberg with a total score of 3-4, missing the men's singles quarterfinals, and breaking out the biggest upset of this World Cup so far, which is a big surprise.
Liang Jingkun played in the first round of the knockout round against the Swedish star Carlberg, who was once hailed as Waldner's successor, but in recent years, Carlberg has not had a strong presence in the Swedish men's table tennis, and Carlberg performed well in this World Cup and entered the men's singles round of 16 from the group. National table tennis world champion Liang Jingkun has been in great form recently, he has reached the men's singles finals of the Singapore Grand Slam and Incheon Championships in a row, and the world ranking has soared from sixth to third. However, as he still lags behind Ma Long in the Olympic standings, this World Cup competition will be very crucial for Liang Jingkun, who must get better results than Ma Long to continue to maintain his hopes of participating in the Paris Olympics, and once he is eliminated prematurely, Liang's hopes of participating in the Paris Olympics will become very slim.
The game between Liang Jingkun and Carlberg was fiercely contested, and Liang Jingkun, who has been in hot form recently, scored consecutive points as soon as he came up, and Carlberg was caught off guard, and Liang Jingkun took the lead with a disparity of 11-3 without much effort. In the second game, Carlberg adjusted his state in time, the two sides fought fiercely, Carlberg in the second half of the force to 11-8 to pull back a city, the third game Liang Jingkun still can't find the feeling, Carlberg more and more bravely won another game 11-5 to overtake the score, the fourth game Liang Jingkun stubbornly pressed the score to only one point when he fell behind 1-5, but unfortunately Liang Jingkun's attack in the second half was weak, Carlberg easily won another game 11-6, and led Liang Jingkun 3-1. Liang Jingkun, who fell behind, showed tenacity in the next two games, relying on his experience to win two games in a row, 11-8, 11-9 in a bad form, and chased the big score to a 3-3 draw. In the deciding game, Liang Jingkun failed to chase after the victory, and lost points continuously at the beginning of the game and was passive, and finally lost 6-11, and was eliminated with a total score of 3-4, missing the men's singles quarterfinals.
After stopping in the top 16 of men's singles, Liang Jingkun did not gain much in this competition, the strongest rival Ma Long defeated the strong rival Felix and advanced to the quarterfinals. After Liang Jingkun won the Singapore Grand Slam runner-up and the Incheon Championship, there was a lot of demand for him to participate in the Paris Olympics, but Liang Jingkun proved to be inconsistent enough.
Although Carlberg has a certain impact, but can not be compared with Ma Long's opponent Felix, this World Cup let us see that Ma Long is more valuable than Liang Jingkun, in fact, don't say that Liang Jingkun's current Olympic points are not as good as Ma Long, even if he surpasses Ma Long after the end of the Saudi Grand Slam, as long as he is not ranked in the top two, then the probability of Liang Jingkun participating in the Paris Olympics is very low, the national table tennis Grand Slam winner Ma Long is expected to be relegated to the Olympic Games for the fourth time, and Liang Jingkun lost this game and gradually drifted away from the Olympic Games, which also let us see the cruelty of competitive sports。