missed the semi-finals, participated in the worst record of the World Cup six times, and "Little Fat" reached the most dangerous moment!
Losing to teammate Lin Gaoyuan 2:4, this result means that Fan Zhendong has to stop at the 1/4 finals of the World Cup singles tournament and cannot achieve the plan to defend the title. This trip to Macau is Fan Zhendong's sixth time to participate in the World Cup singles match since his debut, and his previous 5 times his record is quite good, the worst record is the runner-up, and the Macau World Cup missed the semi-finals, which is obviously not a good sign for Fan Zhendong, who is preparing for the Paris Olympics.
So far, Fan Zhendong has won a total of 6 gold medals in the men's singles competition at the Olympics, World Championships and World Cup, and he has the best record in the World Cup among the three major events, and has been on the championship podium four times before, sharing the gold medal of the Men's Singles World Cup with Ma Lin. Before this World Cup, Fan Zhendong has participated in five competitions, won 4 golds and 1 silver amazing record, his only defeat was back in the 2015 World Cup, when he was only 18 years old and lost to his brother Ma Long in the final. In the four competitions in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020, Fan Zhendong had the last laugh without exception.
In 2021, he won the men's singles runner-up at the Tokyo Olympics and the men's singles championship at the World Table Tennis Championships in Houston. In May last year, Xiaopang successfully defended his title in the men's singles field of the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban.
However, Fan Zhendong's state has declined significantly in the past half a year, and after winning the WTT Star Challenge Ljubljana in early July last year, he has not been able to taste the taste of the international singles championship.
After months of failing to win the singles title, Fan Zhendong was no longer the number one in the world rankings last month, and his leading spot was already occupied by Wang Chuqin. This World Cup was Fan Zhendong's chance to prove himself, he survived the difficulties in the 1/8 finals and defeated the rookie Lin Shidong, but then in the 1/4 finals or planted a fight, like most previous games, he lost to his teammates again, this time it was Lin Gaoyuan who beat him.
At the World Table Tennis Championships in Busan two months ago, Fan Zhendong won the Best Male Athlete Award at the World Table Tennis Championships with a record of eight victories, showing his good ability to fight abroad. However, Fan Zhendong has lost a lot of civil wars in the past six months, with the overall strength of "Little Fat", he has recently lost civil wars one after another, although it will not cause him to miss the ticket to the Paris Olympics, but if he still can't contain this trend in the next one or two months, it will inevitably affect the confidence of "Little Fat" to impact the Olympic singles championship, after all, he is one Olympic singles gold medal away from the Grand Slam.
At present, Fan Zhendong has reached a crossroads in his sports career, and in the face of unoptimistic intra-team competition, it is worth paying attention to how Xiaopang resolves the current crisis.