On May 7, Beijing time, the Chinese Table Tennis Association announced the list of participants in some events of the Paris Olympics. This news is a heavy blow to all fans who like Ma Long, because it means that Ma Long's dream of three consecutive Olympic championships is shattered, and judging from the results of the Saudi Grand Slam competition, this is also the choice of survival of the fittest, don't blame too much for the choice of the Table Tennis Association!
In the Saudi Arabian Grand Slam round of 32, Ma Long broke out a big upset! His opponent was South Korean player Zhang Yuzhen, and after three rounds of competition, Ma Long lost 0-3 under Zhang Yuzhen, with a score of 11-13, 6-11, 8-11 in three games, and unfortunately missed the round of 16. And like Ma Long, there are also Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan, Wang Manyu, and the four aces of national table tennis are out on a single match day. This cold wind blew the national table tennis players cold.
On the second day after the big upset, the Table Tennis Association also announced the latest list of participants in the Paris Olympics, in men's singles, Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong will represent the national table tennis, and the veteran Ma Long was defeated. Mixed doubles, Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha. Sun Yingsha automatically qualified for the women's team, while Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong automatically qualified for the men's team.
Ma Long's failure to be selected for the Olympic singles is infinitely embarrassing! This means that he did not have a chance to hit the third gold medal in the singles of the Olympic Games, Ma Long is the men's singles champion of the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, in addition, he also won the gold medal of the men's table tennis team in London, Rio and Tokyo. If he participates in the Paris Olympics, he has the hope of hitting the Olympic three consecutive Olympic titles, and now he has missed the singles qualification, and his dream has been shattered in advance.
Previously, Ma Long won the Macau singles world championship, the number of individual singles world championships reached 8, the total number of world championships was 30, and the number of important events was 151, and he was only 1 Olympic singles gold medal away from achieving a 3-lap Grand Slam. That is, if the men's singles championship at the Paris Olympics is won, Ma Long will be a three-time Grand Slam winner (he had already won two laps before), but unfortunately, Ma Long has no chance to achieve this goal.
In March this year, WTT gave Ma Long a rather great title, hailing Ma Long as "GOAT" ("Greatest Of All Time", the greatest athlete in history), and now it can only be said: The back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves, and it is time for the god of table tennis to go down the mountain. But no matter what, we can't thank Ma Long for his great achievements, thank him for the glory he brought to the national table tennis, and wish Ma Long a brilliant performance in every game in the future.