The arena is like a battlefield, and winning and losing is often changing rapidly, making it difficult to understand.
Take the 2004 Athens Olympic Games as an example, the former strongest opponent of national table tennis, but the then 38-year-old Swedish veteran Waldner suddenly threatened, doubles eliminated Kong Linghui / Wang Hao, singles and consecutive wins Marlene, Pol, almost half of the Chinese men's team to "annihilate", can you say that he is not cattle?
Who knows that after reaching the semifinals, Lao Wa was completely powerless, first by South Korea's Yoo Seung-min 4-1 to the point of not being able to see, and then in the bronze medal battle by Wang Liqin bombarded a 4-1 score, and even nervous to the point of direct mistake suicide in the last moment, inexplicably bid farewell to the Olympic trip.
Take Wang Liqin as an example, in 2004, he was already the world's number one fierce player, but the Athens Olympic semi-final lost to his own team star Wang Hao, who had hardly lost much, but then he won the old tile in the third and fourth places, becoming the only national table tennis male team player who did not lose foreign battles in that singles competition.
Finally, let's talk about Wang Hao - he had been losing all kinds of games against Wang Liqin at that time, but he had defeated the other side in the Olympic Games; before Wang Hao won 6 consecutive victories against Liu Chengmin in five years, but in the final, he collapsed and lost to the other party 2-4, thus winning the first Olympic singles silver medal in his life.
Before that, most fans and friends speculated that the final would be Waldner against Wang Liqin, Wang Liqin thought that wang Hao PK Lao Wa after losing the game, lao Wa thought that Wang Hao defeated Liu Chengmin to win the championship, and the final result was that the most unpromissing Liu Chengmin won the gold medal:
This is really unreasonable!
So some people involuntarily made this assumption: If it is really Wang Hao and Waldner competing for the championship, what will be the result?
Two months after the end of the Athens Olympics, I really waited for such an opportunity.
In October 2004, the 25th Men's Table Tennis World Cup kicked off in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang Province. Since this is the first men's table tennis world series showdown after the Olympic Games, Chinese fans hope that the national table tennis athletes can play a mighty and wash away the shame of the Athens men's singles gold loss.
Of course, the idea is very good, but everyone knows that the lost championship can never be won back, so it is the most important thing to play the next game steadily.
Coincidentally, in the group stage of the group stage, the situation in group D attracted the attention of many people, because three of the four players were the most representative figures in the table tennis world outside China and foreign associations.
Waldner, Schlager, Yoo Seung-min.
Needless to say, Lao Wa is the first table tennis Grand Slam winner in history, and at the same time the athlete who caused the most damage to the national table tennis at the 2004 Olympic Games;
Schlager was the men's singles champion at the 2003 World Table Tennis Championships, when he also won consecutive victories over Wang Liqin and Kong Linghui, and finally defeated South Korea's dark horse Ju Se-hyuk (eliminating Marlene) to reach the top;
As for Liu Chengmin's words, he is a "new branch champion", the gold medalist of the Athens Olympic Games, leaving Wang Hao and the new head coach Liu Guoliang with regrets.
You said that if these three people are divided into a group, how can they not attract the attention of fans and friends?
What makes everyone feel pitiful is the fourth athlete in group D, his name is Montero, from Brazil, the reason why he was able to participate this time is mainly because of regional reasons - as a Latin American champion player, in the eyes of everyone, he is basically a soy sauce player, and now he is deeply trapped in the net of Lao Wa, Schlager and Liu Chengmin, so what is the "way to live"?
However, the results were much more unexpected.
The match between Waldner, Schlager and Montero did not break out of the cold, of which Schlager won 4-1 with ease, while Old Watt was "old" after all, so he played one more round, but he also ended the battle 4-2, at least winning.
However, Liu Chengmin's performance has made countless people break their glasses.
After a tough seven-inning battle, the Olympic New Branch men's singles champion, the wolf-like Liu Chengmin in Athens, actually lost 3-4 to the Brazilian players, breaking the biggest upset after the start of the tournament!
Of course, if it is only one game to lose, according to the rules of the World Cup, Yoo Seung-min may still get the ticket to advance to the main tournament by winning consecutive wins over Lao Wa and Schlager, so how does he perform in these two games?
Two months ago, Liu Chengmin beat Lao Wa in the semi-final of the Athens Olympic Games, just a serve to make the other party full; but Lao Wa is worthy of the "evergreen tree" of table tennis, just two months later, he has gradually adapted to Liu Chengmin's routine, and the result is that the two played a real peak showdown in the World Cup!
After the start of the game, Liu Chengmin was full of momentum and soon went down to the two cities 11-7, 11-9, and the situation on the field was very similar to that of the Olympic Games.
But soon, Lao Wa began to organize a sharp counterattack, first a 12-10 narrow victory to take away the third set, and then although he lost 9-11 in the fourth set and fell behind 1-3 in the big score, he was forced into a desperate situation, but he immediately fought a fierce battle 13-11 to fight the fifth set, and then took advantage of the trend to win again 11-8, and the game was forced into a decider.
In the seventh set of the battle, the two sides fought again to the point of 9-9 draw, and then Liu Chengmin scored a backhand push to block the bounce, 10-9 to get the match point, but then Lao Wa grabbed a serve to attack and chase to 10-10 draw!
But at this time, an accident occurred.
When Waldner fell behind 9-10 and turned the score into 10-10, Liu Chengmin pointed out that his serve wiped the net, but the referee did not notice it, and still judged Lao Wa's score. Seeing this, Waldner very generously conceded the score, and then regrettably conceded another point in the pull-up link, and finally lost the whole game 9-11.
But so what?
At this time, he has reached the age of 39 to be able to play like this, it is indeed very difficult!
I think that Jiang Jialiang, Primorats, Seiff, Liu Guoliang, and Ma Lin all became the bitter lords of Waldner in a certain period of time, like Liu Guoliang, who even beat him completely unable to lift his head, and lost six encounters in eight years, but Lao Wa finally succeeded in achieving "revenge" and defeated these opponents again.
And now Liu Chengmin only hit Waldner two months ago, and as a result, two months later, he was dragged into the decider by the other side in the World Cup showdown, and finally won by 2 points: If Lao Wa can be a few years younger, who dares to say that he can no longer defeat this strong enemy?
Unfortunately, the hero is short of breath and late.
As for the results of the other two matches in Group D, Lao Wa and Liu Chengmin both lost to Schlager, with a score of 1-4 and 2-4 - this is not surprising, Schlager has never been very afraid of Lao Wa, and Liu Chengmin has an advantage in playing (if Liu Chengmin does not play crazy), so it is normal for him to finally get the first place in the group.
As for Waldner, Liu Chengmin, and Montero, they all won 1 and lost 2, and the final result was that Lao Wa was promoted, Liu Chengmin and Montero were out (the impression seems to be that Liu Chengmin was promoted, but he also generously gave up).
Then the fans and friends ushered in a game that was originally expected to be staged in the Olympic final, that is—
Wang Hao vs Waldner.
Before the Athens Olympics, Wang Hao had already intersected with Waldner, and the last showdown between the two of them was very bad, and before the ball was finished, he claimed that he had returned from injury and withdrew. Now that the World Cup battle between the two of them has met again, and Waldner also injured his neck during the previous match with Schlager, will he stage a retirement this time?
It turned out that Waldner still attached great importance to the World Cup, so despite his physical discomfort, he decided to play seriously with the junior in front of him, who was 18 years younger than himself.
After all, there are not many opportunities left for the 39-year-old Watt to compete.
To be fair, Waldner's play in the ball with Wang Hao is OK, basically playing his own technical expertise, such as his good play - the serve did make Wang Hao eat a lot, and the attack was ok.
But for two reasons, he was swept away in a 4-0 defeat.
What are the two reasons?
First, it was quite uncomfortable with Wang Hao's direct slap and horizontal beating. This is understandable, after all, in 2004, Wang Hao only debuted in the international arena for two years, and Lao Wa has never seen this style of play for most of his career, so it is normal not to adapt.
But relatively speaking, I think the second point is the most important, and that is that Waldner is really old.
In fact, as long as enough time is given to the players of the foreign association, it is only a matter of time to adapt to Wang Hao, for example, later Samsonov and Pol won against Wang Hao. The old tiles in the World Cup did not play badly, but many of the balls were indeed visible to the naked eye tired, the footwork could not keep up at all, and the movements were obviously deformed.
Obviously, the king who once won the table tennis world will never come back; unless the opponent is as tense as Marlene and Ball were at the Athens Olympics, Waldner will have a hard time beating the top athletes.
6-11, 9-11, 9-11, 4-11, losing four straight sets, Waldner bid farewell to the 2004 World Cup trip.
And today we will know that this is also the last time of his career to participate in the World Cup.
In 1983, Waldner first stepped into the arena of the tournament and reached the final. Unfortunately, on the day of his 18th birthday, he led his brother Apeiren 2-0, but the result was tragically reversed by the other side for 3 consecutive sets, and finally regrettably relegated to the second place.
In a flash, twenty-one years have passed.
Looking back at Lao Wa's World Cup journey, it is indeed full of surprises and surprises. Although European players generally do not attach particular importance to this competition, no one refuses to have an extra gold medal. Waldner has reached the final three times, won the championship once, and has failed to qualify for the group stage several times, even ranking second to the bottom.
And his final battle also only defeated one Brazilian player, the other three games all ended in failure, was beaten by Schlager, Liu Chengmin, Wang Hao in turn - fortunately, these people are also masters in the history of the table tennis world, so Lao Wa can only be regarded as "tiger fell in Pingyang and was bullied by the tiger", and it is not shameful to lose to them.
Interestingly, none of the three who won Lao Wa achieved good results in that World Cup, including Liu Chengmin stopping the group stage, Schlager's "one round trip" losing to Glinka, and Wang Hao's 0-4 defeat in the semi-finals was swept by Marlene.
In the end, the 2003 World Cup champions and runners-up Marlene and Glinka met again in the division final, and the result was that Marlene won the championship last time, and this time it was Marlene who reached the top: unfortunately, this championship is much worse than the Olympic gold medal.
At the end of 2004, in the finals of the Table Tennis Federation, Lao Wa did not appear, wang Liqin swept Wang Hao 4-0, and 4-1 ma lin won the gold medal: unfortunately, this competition is even less worth mentioning than the Olympic Games.
However, considering that the Beijing Olympic Games still have to wait for four years, everyone still set their sights on the upcoming Shanghai World Table Tennis Championships, and Lao Wa also made a clear statement: he will participate! So can he shake the table tennis arena again and achieve good results?
We'll leave that to the next chapter.
Original title: "Grand Slam Waldner (43): The last battle of the World Cup, vicious fight Liu Chengmin, tragic defeat of Wang Hao" - the series is not finished to continue, welcome to continue to pay attention!