In the just-concluded Olympic men's singles 16/16 finals, the tournament's top seed and current world No. 1 Wang Chuqin faced world No. 19 Moregard. Surprisingly, Moregard, who had never won more than two points in the previous eight meetings, defeated Wang Chuqin 4-2. There was a big upset, this is the first men's singles player in the history of the Chinese table tennis team to be out of the first round of the Olympic Games.
Game review: Wang Chuqin entered the state slowly, made constant forehand mistakes, and fluctuated greatly in the key game.
In the first game, Wang Chuqin lost four points in a row and lost the first game 10-12 when he got the game point 10-8. In the second game, Wang Chuqin made consecutive mistakes again in the latter part of the game and lost another game 11-7. Wang Chuqin, who lost two games in a row, began to slowly regain his form in the third game, and equalized the total score in the next two games. In the crucial game of the fifth game, the two sides once fought to a scorching score of 8-9. However, at the critical moment, Wang Chuqin once again made many low-level mistakes and lost a key game 11-9. In the last game, Moregard frequently played high-quality returns with divine help, while Wang Chuqin appeared timid, barely showing the power to fight back in the last game, losing 11-6.
Looking back on the whole game, Wang Chuqin's performance was slow on the one hand, and it was not until the third game that he began to reflect the strength of the world's No. 1 men's singles, and when it came to the key game, his mentality fluctuated significantly, and the key ball was repeatedly missed, which was very regrettable. On the other hand, the opponent Moregard, because he had never defeated Wang Chuqin before, his inner burden was much lighter than Wang Chuqin, so many fights seemed very relaxed, which eventually led to the emergence of this big upset.
The upset is not accidental, poor state & poor mentality have long been reflected in the past
Although Wang Chuqin is the No. 1 seed in the men's singles at this Olympic Games, his form is not reassuring. It can be seen from the mixed doubles semifinals and finals that have just ended, Wang Chuqin lost a lot of points in the two games, and the key ball is more often relied on Sun Yingsha to grab back the advantage, which to a certain extent covers up the fact that Wang Chuqin is in a sluggish state
After the mixed doubles final, Deng Yaping, a famous table tennis player in the mainland, also pointed out that Sun Yingsha's performance in the final was very crucial, and Datou's performance was not very good. Perhaps the mixed doubles match consumed too much time and energy of Wang Chuqin, causing him to be unable to adjust his condition in time, but there is no doubt that his unstable mentality was the most important reason for the defeat in this match.
Coincidentally, this tournament is not the first time that Wang Chuqin has been eliminated in the first round of the World Series. In the previous Asian Championships, Wang Chuqin also lost to Japan's Yutai Tanaka in the first round with a score of 2-3 and suffered an exit. It can be said that Wang Chuqin's performance in the world's key competitions is much less stable than his predecessors, but fortunately, he is still relatively young, and he still has more opportunities to experience in the future.
Table tennis seniors: Changing shots can't be an excuse, and you need to be hard to strike iron.
Before this game, Wang Chuqin was trampled on by reporters because of his main racket, and passively used his spare racket, which affected his own performance to a certain extent, and many fans also believed that the main reason for Wang Chuqin's defeat was because the racket was not smooth.
However, former world champion Ma Long once publicly stated in an interview that in the training of the national team, the rackets are mixed, so being able to quickly adapt to different rackets is also a requirement for daily training. Zhang Yining had used a very poor quality spare racket to win the game before. Therefore, such a thing cannot be used as an excuse, it is more that I am not playing well enough.
Although this defeat was very unexpected and made the road to the Chinese men's singles championship more and more difficult, things have happened, Wang Chuqin will participate in the men's team event next, I hope he can adjust his state in time, shame and courage, and help the Chinese men's team win this precious men's team gold medal!