The 2021 Table Tennis Super League has come to an end, and Shandong Weiqiao defeated Shandong Luneng led by Ma Long with the strong performances of Liang Jingkun, Zhou Yuhao and Zhou Yu to unexpectedly win the men's team championship. After a short break, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, Sun Yingsha, Fan Zhendong and others will prepare for the Houston World Table Tennis Championships in Wenzhou to start the next stage of the journey. However, at this point in time, three national team players who were also in 1992 collectively announced their withdrawal to usher in a new stage of life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > Malone's rivals revealed that their hearts were too sad</h1>
As the hero of the victory of Weiqiao in Shandong, Zhou Yu played an important role in the team, ranking second in the doubles individual points of the Table Tennis Super League. In the final against Shandong Luneng, his partner with Zhou Qihao directly defeated the Luneng Wang Chuqin/Yan An combination 3-2 to score a key point for the team. In the showdown with Malone, although he lost 1-3 in the end, he also caused a lot of pressure on Malone, especially his style of play was quite strange, which made Malone play very badly.
After the game, Zhou Yu said in a voice: This championship is not easy to come, all the way to the end; there is one thing that is very reluctant to say, will choose to leave the glorious collective of the national team; retiring from the army does not fade, retiring from the team does not retire, will continue the love of table tennis.
After that, Zhou Yu talked about the reasons for his retirement in an interview with CCTV reporters, on the one hand, he is really old, he has more than enough and lack of strength, and his competitiveness is indeed relatively weak; on the other hand, it is difficult for him to make a breakthrough at this age, it is difficult to improve if the training intensity is insufficient, and the training intensity is too large, it is easy to be injured, so he faces the choice of dilemma. This reason is indeed poignant, which also shows the strength of Malone.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > Yan An apologized and was blessed</h1>
In addition to Zhou Yu, his opponent Yan An in the Table Tennis Super League also announced his retirement from the national team. Yan An failed to play at his highest level in the final, first losing to the Zhou Yu/Zhou Yuhao combination in the first doubles set, and then losing to the strong Liang Jingkun in the final set of the decider, and finally did not score a key point, resulting in Luneng failing to achieve the defense of the title.
Zhou Yu posted on social media: The respect and gratitude for Brother Long (Malone) does not need too many words to express, it is really regrettable that he did not get a precious 1 point for the team, I can feel your desire for victory, really sorry. In addition, he thanked Wang Chuqin, Fang Bo and other teammates separately, saying that he and his teammates are a family, retiring from the team is not retiring, losing is not the end of the world, and the silver medal can win respect.
As soon as Yan An's words came out, he received a lot of blessings from fans on social media, and the fans all said "there is nothing to apologize for, you have tried your best", or "To be continued, Ange is all right" and other blessings. As CCTV famous li Wujun said, Yan An is really a warm man, and his speech is very decent.
In addition to the two of them, Fang Bo also announced his withdrawal from the national team, and it is a pity that he was unable to compete with his teammates in the Table Tennis Super League due to injury. Fang Bo said that "there will always be such a day, nearly 16 years of national team career, being able to wear national uniforms and fight for the country is the greatest glory of this life."
At this point, these three 92-year-old table tennis players will all withdraw from the national team, bless them!