Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 9thQuestion: The strength of the national table tennis team is still showing new ideas-summary of the Chengdu world table tennis team

Xinhua news agency reporters Su Bin, Chen Di, Zhang Han

The 56th world table tennis team championship in 2022 ended in Chengdu on the 9th. The Chinese team won ten consecutive championships in men’s group and five consecutive championships in women’s team. They won the 22nd World Table Tennis Championships in the two projects respectively, and continued to expand the historical record of winning the championships. Entering the Paris Olympic cycle, many teams have been adjusted, and this world table tennis championships also show some new ideas.

The process is very different between the men and women’s teams of Guozhen

In the Chinese team playing in this competition, Liang Jingkun, Sun Yingsha, Wang Yidi and Chen Xingtong all participated in the World Table Tennis Championships for the first time. Although the Chinese team has completed the defending in both men’s group and women’s team, in terms of the process, the Chinese women’s team won the eighth battle without losing a set, and performed strongly. The Chinese men’s team began to encounter strong enemies in a row from the quarter-finals, especially the semi-finals with the Japanese team won a thrilling victory in five sets, which made people see the psychological pressure resistance ability of the Chinese team members.

On October 8th, Chinese team player Sun Yingsha was return in the competition. She defeated Japanese team player Nagasaki Meiyu 3:0. Xinhua News Agency reporter Jiang Hongjing photo

Sun Yingsha, now the world’s first; Chen Meng, the Olympic singles champion; Wang Manqi, the world table tennis singles champion. Since the elimination stage, the strongest trio of the Chinese women’s team has formed a stable starting line-up. The trio also helped the team to reach the highest podium with impeccable performance. As newcomers to the World Table Tennis Championships, Wang Yidi and Chen Xingtong got experience through this competition and showed some strength in their field. The two will be an important part of the Chinese women’s team to maintain competitiveness in the future.

The achievement cannot be achieved without solid preparations before the competition. According to Li Falcon, the head coach of the women’s team of the National Court, the team was very targeted during the closed training in Chengdu for more than a month. Every day, leading player would be arranged to practice against left-handed or raw rubber players. Wang Manji, who defeated the Japanese team leader ITO Meicheng in the final, said: “I have prepared for today’s game for a long time. I have simulated today’s scene many times, both in normal times and in training.”

On October 8th, Chinese team player Wang Manji celebrated in the competition. She defeated Japanese team player ITO Meicheng by 3:1. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu continued photo

Compared with the Swedish Halmstad World Table Tennis Championships four years ago, there was only one change in the lineup of the Chinese men’s team, and Liang Jingkun replaced Xu Xin. In addition to the Grand Slam winner Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, the world’s first and world table tennis singles champion, the 22-year-old Wang Chuqin took on a more important task in this event.

The team competition further tests the balance of the overall strength of a team. After the Chinese men’s team entered the elimination stage with the results of winning and not losing a set in the fourth battle of the group match, it was in the first half with strong teams such as Sweden and Japan. In the quarter-finals, the Swedish team, which had the runner-up of Falk and moregard in the past two World Table Tennis Championships, was not as easy as the 3:0 result, among them, Wang Chuqin lost two games in the contest with Carlson and then staged a plot twist 3:2 dangerous victory.

Facing the Japanese team in the semi-finals, the Chinese men’s team has withstood the biggest test in this competition. 19-year-old Zhang Benzhi scored two points on Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong. He, who had been famous for a long time, was still in the rising stage of his career, but with Wang Chuqin winning one point, the Chinese team with more balanced overall strength broke into title decider and finally won the Cup. “I believe that even if I lose a certain game, the three of us will be able to get three points to win the final victory.” Captain Malone showed the charm of the team match.

The pattern of table tennis has not changed, and some teams have surprises.

Compared with the table tennis team competition of the Tokyo Olympic Games last year, the men’s group top four of the World Table Tennis Championships are still China, Germany, Japan and South Korea. In the women’s team top four, the performance of the Chinese team, the Japanese team and the German team remained stable. The Hong Kong China team who broke into the top four in the Olympic Games was replaced by the Chinese Taipei team. This shows that the overall pattern of table tennis in the world has not changed much.

On October 6th, Indian player Hamet desse lost to Fan Zhendong, a Chinese player, at 0:3. Photo taken by Xinhua News Agency reporter blinger

However, some teams also brought surprises in this World Table Tennis Championships. With the two points of naasekalan, the Indian men’s team played 3:1 Nike Germany in the group match. After the promotion to the elimination match, the Indian team lost to the Chinese team in the 1/8 final.

Veteran Ni Xialian made a surprise on the first match day. She defeated Tian Zhixi and Li Shiwen and helped the Luxembourg team beat South Korea with 3:1 cold. After that, the Luxembourg team also broke into the elimination stage.

Under the leadership of barazova, the women’s team of Slovakia defeated France, which ranked higher than itself in the world in the 1/8 final, and advanced to the top eight of the competition.

New stars Bloom, the veteran sticks to it

Competitive sports never lack the stories of new stars shining and senior generals sticking. Entering the new Olympic cycle, many teams adjusted their personnel. Some famous generals missed the World Table Tennis Championships, giving young athletes the opportunity to bloom themselves in the world championships.

The Lebrun brothers are the main force in the current French men’s team. In this world table tennis tournament, 19-year-old Ai Lebrun won 6 and lost 3, and 16-year-old Fei Lebrun won 5 and lost 3. The two helped the French team break into the top eight, sorry to be out after five sets of hard work with Germany.

On October 8th, Fan Zhendong (right), a Chinese team player, greeted his opponent after the match. He defeated the Japanese team by 3:0. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu continued photo

With the retirement of Jun Mizutani and the absence of Xiao Xi in Dan Yu, the list of Japanese men’s teams has also changed greatly. The 21-year-old family Falcon has become the most dependent athlete of the Japanese team except Zhang benzhihe.

Despite the absence of Bohr, ocharov and Francesca, the German men’s team entered the final under the leadership of Qiu party. The 25-year-old straight player has grown rapidly in the past two years and won the European Championship this year, ranking ninth in the world now. The German team won the opponent by 3:2 in both the quarter-finals and the semi-finals. Qiu party won in a positive confrontation with the other side, which continued the hope of promotion for the German team.

On October 8th, Japanese team players Nagasaki meiyou (right) and Muyuan meiyou (middle) wore panda headdress at the award ceremony. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu continued photo

Without participating in the competition with Hirano Meiyu Kasumi Ishikawa, 18-year-old muyuanmeiyou and 20-year-old Nagasaki Meiyu had more opportunities to represent the Japanese women’s team. The two men came on stage when facing the Chinese team in the final and got a valuable opportunity to exercise in the final of the World competition.

Referring to the veteran, ni xiailian is the first name that many people think. At the age of 59, she played 8 games in this event and won 5 of them, which was the biggest hero of Luxembourg’s promotion to the elimination match. NI xiailian, who stepped down from the stadium, is still full of longing for the future, “looking forward to the opportunity to participate in the Paris Olympics”.

43-year-old Fu Yu (Portugal team), 41-year-old Chuang Chih-yuan (Chinese Taipei team), 39-year-old Han Ying (German team), 37-year-old Yuan Jiannan (French team)…… The veterans interpreted their love for table tennis and also left a good story on the World Table Tennis Championships.