On May 7, Beijing time, at the 2024 WTT Saudi Arabia Grand Slam, the national table tennis suffered Waterloo on the third day of the main event, and the three main players in the men's singles were out, namely Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan, and Ma Long. And the national table tennis player Lin Shidong made a surprise, he eliminated the German player Ruben Firus 3-2, this victory was not easy, Lin Shidong completed the single-game reversal twice, showing maturity that does not match his age in a desperate situation, which made Wang Hao happy.
In the second round of men's singles, Lin Shidong played against German chipper Ruben Firus, and Lin Shidong hit 11-1 in the first game, which was quite strong. Ruben Firus fought back strongly in the second game to take a 10-7 win and look good for a comeback. However, Lin Shidong did not give up, he scored 5 points in a row in one breath, and directly reversed 12-10 to win the second game. Ruben Philus was very helpless and angrily threw the beat.
However, Rubén Firus quickly adjusted, although he is a chipper, he is also very strong in attack, and his overall strength is particularly outstanding. In the third and fourth games, Rubén Philus grasped the key points and won two games in a row, 11-9, 11-8, to drag the game into a deciding game. The final tiebreaker was even more twists and turns, after losing two games in a row with a 2-0 lead, Lin Shidong's mentality was affected, and there were many mistakes in the tiebreaker, and the key ball was either blindly shot or dared not shoot, and the result was 4-8 behind, it can be said that Lin Shidong fell into a desperate situation.
Under heavy pressure, Lin Shidong still worked hard to chase points and constantly narrow the gap. Rubén Filus got the match point 10-8, Lin Shidong staged a reversal again, saved the match point in a row, won the tiebreaker 13-11, and defeated Rubén Filus 3-2 thrillingly, advancing to the men's singles round of 16. In the case of many senior brothers losing upsets, Lin Shidong seized the opportunity and not only won the top 16 seats, but also saved a trace of face for Wang Hao.
In the second game, he scored 5 points from 7-10 behind, and 8-10 in the deciding game to resolve the match point and make a strong comeback, which was an epic reversal. The young Lin Shidong is indeed a surprise, and many fans called for the Olympic P card to be given to Lin Shidong, so that he could feel the Olympic atmosphere in advance. At present, Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong of the men's team have confirmed to get the men's singles quota for the Paris Olympics, and they are also automatically shortlisted for the men's team lineup, and the third seat of the men's team is likely to belong to Ma Long.
Ma Long missed the Olympic men's singles, and the Chinese men's table tennis can be regarded as entering a new era. In addition, after the Paris Olympics, Ma Long is likely to retire, who can succeed Ma Long? Many people have also mentioned Lin Shidong, who has a fierce upward momentum, considering that Lin Gaoyuan and Liang Jingkun are not young anymore, Lin Shidong is indeed worth focusing on cultivating, and is expected to become the absolute protagonist in the next Olympic cycle. To put it simply, the three main forces of national table tennis in the next Olympic cycle are very likely to be Wang Chuqin, Fan Zhendong and Lin Shidong.
Of course, it is not easy to become Ma Long's successor, because Ma Long is too good and his results are too good, Lin Shidong also needs to improve comprehensively at the technical level and psychological level, especially to improve stability, become stronger when encountering strong, and win the game steadily when encountering weaker opponents, so as to get more opportunities. In fact, the opportunity is already in front of Lin Shidong, and being able to participate in a high-level event like a Grand Slam at such a young age really shows that the coaching staff is very optimistic about him. I look forward to Lin Shidong continuing to work hard and achieving better results in the future!