On April 19, Beijing time, the ITTF Singles World Cup ushered in a peak national table tennis civil war, with Fan Zhendong and Lin Gaoyuan competing for the semifinals in the men's singles quarterfinals. In this game, Fan Zhendong lost to Lin Gaoyuan 2-4 in six games, and the defending champion stopped in the quarterfinals.
In terms of world rankings, Fan Zhendong is second and Lin Gaoyuan is eighth, although there is a certain gap between the rankings of the two sides, but the two have entered the national team in the same batch, and they have both played in the Guangdong team, so there is no secret between them. Fan Zhendong, who played as the defending champion, faced a huge challenge in the last round, and after falling behind 1-3, Fan Zhendong saved match point and reversed teammate Lin Shidong in three consecutive games. After drawing 2-2 with Pucar in the group stage, Lin Gaoyuan swept Zhuang Zhiyuan 4-0 to advance, and 4-2 Nick Darko in the last round to reach the quarterfinals.
In the first game, Lin Gaoyuan took the lead in the backhand position, but on the whole, both sides played a little tight at the beginning, and basically did not play multiple rounds of strong confrontation, and often the first three boards were divided into winners and losers. As the first game deepened, Lin Gaoyuan relied on the excellent performance of his backhand and the launch of the first three boards to consolidate his advantage, while Fan Zhendong was a little slow to heat up, and Lin Gaoyuan took the lead 11-7.
In the second game, Fan Zhendong began to enter the state and was more active in the launch of the first three boards. When serving, Fan Zhendong had some changes in the long ball, and Fan Zhendong was no longer entangled with Lin Gaoyuan, and directly played the big ball to hold each other, and played to avoid weaknesses. In this way, Fan Zhendong opened the difference with a wave of climaxes and pulled back a game 11-6.
In the third game, the two sides played more openly, and the number of balls held by each other increased significantly. In the middle game, Fan Zhendong violated the serving rules, and because he had been warned once before, Fan Zhendong was directly judged to lose points this time. Lin Gaoyuan's backhand was powerful again, disrupting Fan Zhendong's rhythm. When Lin Gaoyuan led 10-5, Fan Zhendong signaled to the referee that his wrist was uncomfortable and asked for a medical timeout. After the pause, Lin Gaoyuan won 11-7.
In the fourth game, Lin Gaoyuan's backhand was still very fierce at the beginning, but in the next few hair extensions, Fan Zhendong did a good job, and the score opened up all of a sudden. As soon as Lin Gaoyuan was about to get up, Fan Zhendong called a timeout, which was enough to see Fan Zhendong's determination to win this game. After the pause, Fan Zhendong further accelerated, and with excellent return twisting and pressing on the first three boards, Fan Zhendong equalized again 11-6.
In the fifth game, Fan Zhendong's overall quality was very high, and he made a dream start of 7-0. However, Lin Gaoyuan let go of his hands and feet when he was 2-8 behind, and scored 7 points in a row to overtake. At the end of the game, both sides had a hard hand and played to 10 draws. Lin Gaoyuan withstood the pressure and won Tianwang Mountain 12-10.
In the sixth game, Fan Zhendong changed his jersey. Lin Gaoyuan made two mistakes at the beginning, but then he shot firmly, scoring 7-3 in a row to push Fan Zhendong into a desperate situation. In the face of Fan Zhendong's counterattack, Lin Gaoyuan played an excellent backhand to get the match point. 11-7, Lin Gaoyuan won the sixth game and eliminated Fan Zhendong 4-2.
After this game, Lin Gaoyuan reached the semifinals against Zhang Benzhihe, and Lin Gaoyuan was still vividly remembered by Zhang Benzhihe's tragedy of letting three chase and four major reversals, which is an excellent opportunity for Lin Gaoyuan to take revenge. If Lin Gaoyuan can continue to eliminate Fan Zhendong, he is very hopeful of defeating Xiaomoto.