On April 18, in the 1/8 finals of the Macau World Cup, Fan Zhendong played against Lin Shidong again. Fan Zhendong participated in this tournament as the defending champion, and the pressure can be imagined. Especially in the past two events, Fan Zhendong lost to Lin Shidong in the Singapore Grand Slam and went out early, and did not even have a chance to defend his title; This World Cup, we need to play a more convincing performance.
After the start, Fan Zhendong encountered an unfavorable situation and swallowed the opening black. In the third game, Fan Zhendong failed to seize the opportunity to take the lead at the beginning, and Lin Shidong scored consecutive points in the middle of the game to get the game point 10-6. Fan Zhendong chased 4 points in a row, and then lost 2 points in a row, losing 10-12, with a big score of 1-2! In the fourth game, Lin Shidong continued to exert his strength, and won 11-6 again, with a big score of 3-1! Fan Zhendong had no way out! After that, Fan Zhendong won 3 games in a row and turned the tables, of which the sixth game had already saved a match point, and the seventh game played a score of 15-13, and it was difficult to cash in the match point.
In the end, Fan Zhendong successfully took revenge and reversed his national table tennis teammates to reach the top 8 with difficulty, while Lin Shidong was out of the game 3-1 to 3-4.
In an interview after the game, Fan Zhendong still felt that it was not easy. Commenting on the game like this: The first five games were all pressed and played, very passive, I haven't played 7 games and 4 wins for a long time, and the rhythm behind is slowly getting better. Lin Shidong's hitting quality and hitting rate are very high. The main reason for winning the next two games is that the mentality is getting better and better.
Since then, Fan Zhendong has clearly realized that after today's game, he can think of some ways to win, which used to rely more on ability and quality, but now he finds that he needs to do better in some aspects, and hopes that he can have greater confidence.
It can be seen that Fan Zhendong has palpitations and a clear mind, and he has his own plans for the follow-up game. Indeed, Fan Zhendong recognized the difficulty of the knockout round and also reminded himself of it. Next, facing another national table tennis teammate, Lin Gaoyuan, still needs to pay special attention. Fan Zhendong's post-match speech showed a little scary place, tenacity and confidence, and let us look forward to him continuing to bounce back.