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On April 21, 2024, in the men's singles final of the ITTF Table Tennis World Cup, the 36-year-old "elderly" Ma Long defeated Lin Gaoyuan 4-3 in a passive situation of losing 3 games first, and won the Table Tennis World Cup for the third time. It was also the 30th World Championship of his career. Looking back on Ma Long's road to winning the World Cup, it inspires all those who like table tennis, that is, as long as you love it, you will always be the year to play!!
The 2024 ITTF Men's and Women's World Cups will be held from 15 April to 21 April at the Galaxy Arena in Macau, China. This competition is the return of the ITTF Singles World Cup after three years, with men's singles and women's singles competitions, and the number of participants will be expanded from 16 to 48 players. Stage 1: 48 players are divided into 16 groups, one in each group with the top 16 seeded players and two other players, and play a round-robin group stage, with only four games between the players, and the first place group advances. The second stage: After the 16 qualifiers are drawn by lot, they will directly adopt the best-of-seven elimination round until the champion is decided.
In the first stage of the group stage, Ma Long drew lots and settled in Group 4, which included Canada's Li Yuanzhang and Australia's Aditya Saleen. In the group stage, Ma Long was under no pressure, first beating Aditya Sareen 4-0 and then Li Yuanzhang 4-0. Finish first in the group and advance to the round of 16. At this time, Malone did not set himself the goal of winning the championship, and he thought that if he reached the semifinals, he would complete the task.
The second stage of the round of 16 knockout round. Malone drew lots to settle in the 2/4 zone, and in the 1/8 finals, Malone faced France's Felix Lebrun. Although Felix Lebrun is only 18 years old, he is very strong, and is currently ranked 5th in the world, which can be said to be the first person in French table tennis. At the beginning of the game, Malone actively mobilized himself to take the lead and won two games in a row, and finally Malone defeated Felix Lebrun 4-2. The results advanced to the quarterfinals of the men's singles of the World Cup.
In the men's singles 1/4 finals, Ma Long faced Japan's Hayasuke Togami. Against Hayasuke Togami, Malone did not play easily, falling behind twice in the number of innings, and tied twice, and finally defeated Hayasuke Togami 4-2. In an interview, Ma Long said that in the past, he always took the initiative at the beginning of the game, but now it is difficult to gain the upper hand in the skills and tactics on the field, so he can only calm down and fight one point at a time. Advancing to the semifinals, Ma Long has completed the set goals and tasks.
In the men's singles semifinals, Ma Long played against Wang Chuqin. In the past two years, Ma Long has always lost more than he won against Wang Chuqin. Because Ma Long and Wang Chuqin are teammates of the Beijing team, they get along day and night and have been training together for more than ten years. Wang Chuqin knows Ma Long's style of play too well, and the current Ma Long's speed is not as good as his 20s. Therefore, it is always difficult for Ma Long to win in the face of Wang Chuqin. Unexpectedly, Ma Long played very relaxed in the game, using a counterspin serve to Wang Chuqin's forehand at a large angle, and the effect was very good. And on the court, Ma Long's usual techniques are not commonly used, such as backhand twisting, side cutting, etc., and the hit rate is also very high, including some fighting balls. In the end, Ma Long defeated Wang Chuqin 4-0. When asked Ma Long how he looked forward to the finals, Ma Long relaxed and replied: "Let's have a good rest first!"
In the men's singles final, Ma Long played against Lin Gaoyuan. Lin Gaoyuan obviously learned the lesson of Wang Chuqin, and as soon as he came up to receive the serve, he resolutely used the backhand twist and pull of the whole Taiwan, took the initiative to play with Ma Long, and quickly entered the holding link of his advantage. This tactic successfully suppressed Ma Long. Ma Long's counterspin serve, which was very effective against Wang Chuqin, was easily defused by Lin Gaoyuan. In the first three games, Lin Gaoyuan established a huge score advantage at the beginning, and Ma Long tried his best to catch up. Lin Gaoyuan won the first two games 11:9, and the third game was won with a score of 11:5.
When Ma Long had no way to retreat, he changed the backhand serve that he didn't usually use in the fourth game, and strengthened the change in rhythm and mobilized Lin Gaoyuan on a large scale. In the fifth game, Lin Gaoyuan led Ma Long 5:1, Ma Long scored 2 points with a backhand side cut, and 1 point with a backhand erase, so that Lin Gaoyuan could not play a fast connection characteristic, chased the score to 6 draws, and won the fifth game 11:6. In the seventh game, when Ma Long won four championship points with 10:6, he roared and was inspiring. After that, Lin Gaoyuan scored two match points in a row and played 8:10. Then Ma Long served with a backhand, Lin Gaoyuan twisted it with a backhand, Ma Long cut a board sideways, the two sides held each other with multiple shots, and Lin Gaoyuan hit the ball out of bounds. Ma Long won the seventh game of the tiebreaker 11:8, thus defeating Lin Gaoyuan 4-3 and winning the men's singles championship of the 2024 Table Tennis World Cup.
Ma Long's ability to win the heavyweight World Cup championship at the end of his 36-year-old table tennis player's career is the result of his sincere love for table tennis, serious training and cherishing the opportunity to compete, and on the other hand, it is also the result of his delving into advanced table tennis technology, constantly trying new tactics, and having the courage to break through his own ceiling. Ma Long used his own experience to tell everyone: table tennis is not about speed, strength and spin, but about the wisdom and psychological quality of the brain. As the majority of netizens jokingly said: "Maybe in the 2048 Olympic Games, the head coach of the Chinese table tennis team is Fan Zhendong, the head coach of the men's team is Wang Chuqin, and the athlete who is active on the field is still Ma Long." "Because Malone said: As long as you have love, you will always be the year to fight!!