On April 19, Beijing time, Lin Shidong lost to Hugo and Lin Gaoyuan, and Fan Zhendong lost three major championships in a row. The pattern of China's national table tennis Olympics has undergone a complete change.
Fan Zhendong, as the ace of national table tennis, can really only be described by the word "bad" in his recent performance, the worse he plays, and he sleepwalks more and more. This World Cup was supposed to be a godsend opportunity for Xiaopang to counterattack, but this time he lost to Lin Gaoyuan, and he overturned every game with a key goal, which has gradually become the norm for the former national table tennis world No. 1.
At least since entering 2024, including several competitions in Doha at the beginning of the year, Fan Zhendong has not won the championship, and has lost three important championships to Lin Gaoyuan, Hugo and Lin Shidong in the last month. And lost to different opponents three times, Xiaopang's current strength is worrying, the Olympics are approaching, and the national table tennis may be replaced again in the last three months.
Singapore Grand Slam faced Lin Shidong, Xiaopang directly 1-3 in the second round, in fact, the system at that time was 5 games and 3 wins, if this game was also 5 games and 3 wins, Fan Zhendong would lose to Lin Shidong again. Fortunately, 4 wins in 7 games gave him the opportunity to counterattack, and he won 3 games in a row to complete the turnaround, but the state at that time was very worrying, Lin Shidong was not so strong, but he always couldn't beat.
Next, Wang Chuqin finally stopped playing in the Incheon Championship and practiced in retreat to prepare for the World Cup, which should be a godsend for Fan Zhendong, but he didn't expect him to even win the championship back when Wang Chuqin didn't play, and lost to Hugo in the semifinals. It doesn't matter if you lose Lin Shidong is a civil war, if you lose Hugo, it will be a foreign war, and the opportunity is also given to you, I can't grasp it, I really can't take it.
Back to this World Cup game, Fan Zhendong stumbled all the way, and was dragged into the tie-break in the first game of the knockout stage, and then Lin Gaoyuan finally did not resist, on the one hand, we have to say that Lin Gaoyuan's current performance is indeed brilliant, but on the other hand, even if Lin Gaoyuan is strong, he will not play like this when he beat Fan Zhendong before.
And after winning Fan Zhendong, Lin Gaoyuan also saved face for him and said that he would never have any burden to fight with Fan Zhendong, and he would fight him, knowing that his strength was not as good as Fan Zhendong, and he also deliberately emphasized that Fan Zhendong may have injuries in this game, which has more or less affected his state, which is really face-saving. In fact, Fan Zhendong's injury did not have such a big impact, his injury was called a medical timeout when he was 5:10 behind in the third game, and he scored 2 points in a row when he came back from the pause, including Lin Gaoyuan who said that he had an injury, but after the injury was cured in the 4th game, Fan Zhendong also won it directly.
Lin Gaoyuan said this to save face for his good brother Fan Zhendong in the Guangdong team, but Fan Zhendong himself has no way out, from July last year to now, he has not won any important championships for 9 months. Before the Olympic Games, there was a shortage of singles championships for nearly a year, but now that the Olympics are approaching, the goal of national table tennis is to win gold and silver medals, and to keep the half area, it is possible to replace him and let Ma Long go. Ma Long's upper limit is definitely not as high as Xiao Chubby's, but Ma Long's lower limit is higher, at least he can guarantee that he will not lose the outside line, so he will win the gold medal in the end, which is acceptable.