After the semi-finals of this season's Table Tennis Super League, Zheng Peifeng of Shantou Mingrun Club officially announced the decision to retire, although only 25 years old, but considering that the National Games in four years is already 29 years old and competitiveness inevitably declines, it may be a wise move to choose retirement. Zheng Peifeng was once trained as Xu Xin's successor, and also won the men's singles championship of the 2018 Czech Open, but the way out of the straight board is getting narrower and narrower, the living space is narrow, and I am afraid that the future of the world table tennis will make the horizontal board unified.
Zheng Peifeng from the Fujian team, in 2008 with excellent results into the national team, when the main force of national table tennis there are Wang Hao and Ma Lin two major straight board players, both have good international competition results, especially in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, two straight board players won the men's singles championship and runner-up, there was a situation where the straight board overwhelmed the horizontal board, but the good times were not long, as Wang Hao and Ma Lin gradually faded into the national table tennis, the straight board players were like entering the cold palace.
Among the Chinese men's table tennis teams, straight board players are very rare, and the more famous ones are the world champion Xu Xin and the younger generation of Zhao Zihao and Zheng Peifeng. However, the three lack absolute dominance in both domestic and international competitions. Although Xu Xin is the team world champion and Olympic champion, the doubles also won the world championships men's doubles and mixed doubles, but unfortunately the singles results have never been able to break through, the Olympic singles qualification has never been obtained, the world championship singles has not reached the final, and the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships is the second round as the No. 2 seed upset.
Zhao Zihao, the two straight board players who played in the year, defeated Wang Chuqin at the Austrian Open in 2019 and won the men's singles runner-up, and Zheng Peifeng also won the men's singles championship of the Czech Open in 2018, defeating England's Pitcheford and Portugal's Fresta and other fierce opponents along the way. However, the two have some short-lived tastes, which cannot be played in the national table tennis team, and the international arena is only an occasional zhengrong in individual open competitions.
Since the beginning of the Rio Olympic cycle, whether it is men's table tennis or women's table tennis, it is difficult for straight board players to get ahead, not only the national table tennis straight board can not play results, even the traditional strong teams such as South Korea and North Korea, which were keen to cultivate straight board stars in the past, are also the masters of the horizontal board, the number one strong opponent of the national table tennis men's line, Jeong Young-sik, Lee Sang-so, Zhang Yuzhen of the South Korean team, and the main opponents of the women's line, Ito Mimako, Ishikawa Yoshinori, etc. of the Japanese team are all horizontal board play.
Straight board play backhand is a fatal weakness, Wang Hao, Ma Lin and even liu Guoliang and other predecessors have straight-hitting horizontal playing technology, especially Wang Hao's use has been very skilled, to make up for the backhand loopholes and weaknesses, and the active male table tennis straight board three musketeers Xu Xin, Zhao Zihao, Zheng Peifeng do not have this technology to escort, although the three are also trying to change the technology but did not succeed, the straight board horizontal play technology can not be mastered, all by the forehand attack, slowly surpassed by the horizontal board.
With the retirement of Zheng Peifeng, Xu Xin's retirement will also enter the countdown, although the Table Tennis Association is also tilting towards the special play style of straight board, but limited by the defects of its own technology, it is difficult for the straight board to resist the two-sided attack of the horizontal board master, and perhaps the future straight board faces the possibility of extinction in the world series.