In the men's singles 1/8 finals of the 2024 ITTF Macau World Cup on April 18, Liang Jingkun lost 3-4 to Swedish star Anton Carlberg. With the end of this competition, everything seems to have fallen to the ground, and Liang Jingkun's Olympic opportunity is almost gone, and his career may not be able to participate in the Olympics.
Liang Jingkun 3-4 Carlberg【11-3,8-11,5-11,6-11,11-8,11-9,6-11】
I don't want to say too much about the process of this game, Liang Jingkun returned to his old state, his performance was up and down in the early stage, he couldn't find the key way to break the enemy, and Wang Hao's alertness was also slightly insufficient. Until the total score of 1-3 woke up, but at this time there was no chance of forgiveness, and fought hard until the decisive game unfortunately lost.
Liang Jingkun missed the men's singles quarterfinals, and only scored 130 world ranking points in this event, and there were no Olympic selection points. Malone has already reached the quarterfinals and can obviously get more points. After this station, Liang Jingkun will not only be unable to surpass Ma Long, but the gap between the Olympic selection points between the two sides will widen, leaving Liang Jingkun with few opportunities.
This game had a great impact on Liang Jingkun, and he wasted a chance to stop. Originally, Liang Jingkun had the opportunity to impact the Olympic quota, and even the Olympic singles quota. Liang Jingkun's current Olympic seed points are ahead of Fan Zhendong and Ma Long, if he can play these two matches well to ensure the top two Olympic seeds, and Fan Zhendong and Ma Long's Olympic seeds are not enough to score the top two, then Liang Jingkun will have a chance to counterattack and get the Olympic singles qualification.
But now Liang Jingkun didn't seize the opportunity, and what was worse was that he lost the foreign war and was eliminated in the 1/8 finals. For Liang, the next only chance is the Saudi Grand Slam. However, the Saudi Grand Slam is only the third place in the Olympic Games, and Liang Jingkun has almost no chance to impact the Olympic singles. Judging from the overall situation, it is more Wang Chuqin, Fan Zhendong and Ma Long, and Liang Jingkun has won the P card sparring.
Liang Jingkun is 28 years old, and if he misses the Paris Olympics, he will almost miss the Olympics. Because by the 2028 Olympic Games, Liang Jingkun will be 32 years old, and the situation will be different at that time, and Liang Jingkun's own performance has always been unstable. In the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Wang Chuqin got the opportunity to get a P card, Liang Jingkun has not participated in the Olympic Games with the team, and Liang Jingkun is currently ahead of Lin Gaoyuan and has a good chance of getting a P card.
On the whole, Liang Jingkun's stop in the 1/8 finals had a great impact and almost ruined his Olympic chance. After losing the foreign war at such a critical moment, the stability of the overall performance has always been insufficient, and it is obviously difficult for the coaching staff to entrust him with the heavy responsibility of singles. Saudi Arabia is at full strength in the Grand Slam and has a chance to secure a third place at the Olympics if they perform well. If you still go out early, I'm afraid that even the P card place will have to be reserved for Lin Gaoyuan.
Regarding the current Olympic situation of the national table tennis men's team, Wang Chuqin almost locked in 1 singles place, and Fan Zhendong is relatively close, but Fan Zhendong needs to play steadily in the Macau World Cup and the Saudi Arabia Grand Slam, as long as the Olympic singles opportunities are stabilized, there is no big problem. After all, Ma Long is older, and there are relatively more uncertainties, only Fan Zhendong can't guarantee his own state, and Ma Long has a chance to beat Liang Jingkun to win the Olympic singles quota.