The final of this year's World Tour finally came to a difficult end after one hour and twenty minutes.
Sun Tianlong, the first player in history, defended his honor after all. He fought fiercely with Hook for seven rounds, and finally faced Hook's collapse in the decisive game, winning with a score of 11:2.
After the game was played, all the people in the industry who were sitting in front of the screen to watch the game remained silent. They did not move their seats for a long time, let alone say a word.
What foreign players feel is a deep-seated despair.
They felt that Hook's physical strength had reached the limit of human beings, and the ball he played had also reached the limit of technology. But even so, they still couldn't defeat Sun Tianlong.
Is it true that no one can cure this dragon?
The brave man slaying the dragon is obviously a legend among Europeans, but in the past seven years, the only one who has succeeded in slaying a dragon was Luo Jiu, an Asian two months ago.
As for a few months ago, Bayer's victory over World Cup actually had nothing to do with slaying the dragon, it was just the dragon taking a nap.
They could see how far ahead Hook was in the entire game, and how many once-in-a-lifetime opportunities they had had to win. However, in the end, the Brazilians failed to seize enough opportunities, allowing Sun Tianlong to recover a lot of points with great difficulty, dragging the game into the decisive game.
They can all see that Sun Tianlong is really old. This age is not too obvious when playing with other players, but when encountering a sports monster like Hook, the contrast is particularly obvious.
Sun Tianlong can't outrun Hook, its strength is not as good as Hook, and its physical strength is not as good as Hook. Only the slight changes in the ball can crush Hook several streets.
In addition, what is most commendable about him is still his mentality.
He holds on very hard, almost like a small boat in the stormy sea, but he just won't sink, and he will look for opportunities to bite you back.
Every point scored by Hook was very hard-earned. He needed to rush with all his strength, run all over the field, and shout for a fierce battle. In order to score from Sun Tianlong's defense, he used all his strength.
But Sun Tianlong's scores come as if they were opportunistic, always getting opportunities from some small mistakes Hook inadvertently made.
So when the whole game was over, everyone recalled the process and only remembered the offensive scenes of Hook. How did Sun Tianlong score? Many people are not impressed.
Because Sun Tianlong really just grasped the minor problems of Hook's rough play style, insufficient smooth connection, and unstable performance. He found opportunities from the impossible, and then converted every small opportunity into points.
Hook really tried his best today.
He is usually the kind of person who loses his temper for no apparent reason, but today he managed to hold on for six rounds in such a high-intensity confrontation, and his mental energy consumption was probably three to four times that of usual, which shows how much he wants to win.
It's a pity that he still didn't kill Sun Tianlong during this period of time.
So Hook collapsed in the seventh game.
He didn't collapse after losing, nor was he restrained by Sun Tianlong's tactics. He just couldn't hold himself mentally. He suddenly fell into disarray and became full of mistakes. In the last game, he was just playing the ball randomly.
In Chinese parlance, this is called "at the end of a strong crossbow, the force cannot penetrate Lu's silk".
On the screen, Sun Tianlong tiredly raised his arms in celebration, which seemed a bit perfunctory. He didn't even have the energy to run around half the court. If you look closely, you can see that one of his legs is shaking slightly.
This is not because of lack of physical strength, but because his old injury recurred in this exhausting game.
"Brother Long It's not easy." Luo Jiu sighed, "Asian Cup, when he played with me last time, it was similar to this time, exhausted to the limit. But last time it was a civil war, he could choose to give up, but not this time, Huaping cannot lose the foreign war, he must persist to the end... After this game, his body may not be able to adjust in the short term."
He paused, then suddenly smiled "hehe", his expression suddenly became lively, and even the solemn atmosphere in the room was diluted a bit. "In other words, in this year's year-end finals, Brother Long may have to play injured."
This is quite a bit of schadenfreude, because although International Table Tennis Federation's World Tour does not have high gold content, the year-end finals at the end of the year have high gold content, so both Luo Jiu and Sun Tianlong will definitely participate, and they will definitely aim to win the championship.
Luo Jiu is very worried about this, and has been thinking about how to defeat Sun Tianlong during this time.
He knew in his heart that if he really wanted to compete with Dragon Team Bayonet, he would still be slightly inferior.
But now it's better. Sun Tianlong fought to the death for the glory of China Table Tennis Team and was severely drained by the Brazilians. Luo Jiu has another two-point chance of winning in the year-end finals.
Wang Chao was a bit unable to laugh. He said seriously, "Brother, if you play this game, you may not be able to win."
Luo Jiu's smile suddenly froze on his face, and he said humbly, "There are some things that don't need to be said so clearly... Will I die if you make me happy for a while?"
The implication is that he accepted Wang Chao's statement.
His physical strength is better than Sun Tianlong, and his speed will be faster, but compared with Hook, this advantage is meaningless.
On the contrary, in terms of pure competition experience and tenacity, he is weaker than Sun Tianlong, because after all, he has not been ranked number one in the world for seven years, and he does not yet have the indifference at the top and the confidence to be studied by the world.
What's more, the setbacks in his career were all due to technical changes. There was no one like Wang Wendong to suppress him for seven years, so his mentality was actually far inferior to Sun Tianlong.
He knew very well that if he encountered Hook in today's state, he would be defeated before the seventh game.
"So, Huaping is really at a critical moment of life and death." Wang Chao made the final conclusion, which also completely ended the trace of smile that remained on Luo Jiu's face.
At this moment, the two most talented figures in contemporary Chinese table tennis felt some kind of tremendous pressure.
Dragon Team can last at most one year, and then all the pressure will fall on their shoulders.
The second half of the year belonging to Wang Chao is actually over. In the remaining days, he can go home and wait for the New Year in peace, leaving all the busyness for next year.
Before returning from the imperial capital, he went to the national team training base again.
Everything is business as usual here.
Qin Huachang sneered when he saw him, didn't give him a good look, turned around and left, and warned his young apprentice Fan Xiaodong in a low voice, "Don't get too close to him, this kid has a very bad heart."
Wang Chao smiled, knowing that Old Qin was still angry, but he didn't take it seriously.
Zhu Ding has officially become a full-time sparring partner for the national team and has been officially on duty from now on, so when Wang Chao saw him, he was sparring with Luo Jiu.
It was said that he was a sparring partner, but Zhu Ding did not cooperate with the main players in special training like a real sparring partner. Instead, he played quite freely. In Wang Chao's opinion, it was already a bit flashy.
But no one said anything about him. He Jingping just watched with a smile, and even gave him some suggestions from time to time, asking him to try something more extraordinary.
Wang Chao It can be seen that the Huaping coaching staff probably regards Zhu Ding as a test product, and wants to see if his Happy Ping Pong can get through. If it can get through, there will be another weird player in the Huaping team. If Huaping encounters difficulties in the future, this weird player may not be able to go out for the country and catch foreign players off guard.
For example, people like Hook are strong, but if they don't play rigorously, they might be confused by Zhu Ding's weird tricks.
However, Wang Chao watched for more than ten minutes, and Zhu Ding was beaten violently by Luo Jiu almost the entire time. This so-called Happy Ping Pong may have a long way to go to find a way out.
Fortunately, Zhu Ding has really changed now. Even though he lost miserably, he was calm and even talked and laughed.
At noon, Zhu Zeshi came over with Lu Feiyang and Xiao Fei and met up with He Jingping. It was the first time for everyone in the Zhumen to come together and have a meal in the canteen of the national team base. It felt like team building.
During the dinner, He Jingping formally invited Wang Chao to come to the imperial capital to celebrate the New Year.
"Anyway, your mother is alone in Jiangcheng and has no relatives. You might as well bring her to the Imperial Capital. You have an apartment now, which is very convenient." He Jingping said, "It just so happens that I am also a loner. When the time comes, I will cook a reunion dinner for you and have dinner together. In the evening, I will go to my senior brother's house to pay New Year greetings. Their family is very lively. Let's watch the Spring Festival Gala happily."
Wang Chao Thinking about the scene He Jingping mentioned, he felt quite leisurely and fascinated.
But he finally refused.
Because he knew that Wang Mei would not come to the imperial capital.
As a cheap mother, she gave birth to a child too early and suffered at the bottom of society to raise herself. She has never read many books and has no chance to see the wider world. Therefore, her perspective on knowledge and theory has indeed fallen out of the mainstream of the times.
After he signed a contract with Spade Q, he once mentioned to Wang Mei that he wanted to buy a house in Jiangcheng City to improve his life, but was sternly rejected by Wang Mei. He tried to reason with Wang Mei, but Wang Mei was rendered speechless by him, and he directly raised the feather duster in anger.
Wang Mei is such a person. He is short-sighted and full of cognitive errors, but he is extremely strong and insists on his own opinions without refutation.
Because in the past ten years or so, she had been an orphan and a widowed mother, and she had eaten her last meal without squatting down. If she didn't have a domineering personality, she wouldn't be able to feed her children at all.
So Wang Chao knows that if you want to convince Wang Mei, it's not enough to just be reasonable, because she can't understand.
You have to slowly, step by step, subtly, change her unconsciously, let her understand you little by little, identify with you, and step out of her little world little by little.
So this winter, Wang Chao plans to spend two full months to slowly and personally change his mother.
The right thing to do is to show your unfulfilled filial piety to the original soul in this body.
After finishing the meal, Wang Chao had completed all the to-do items in the imperial capital.
But he was in no hurry to leave because the high-speed train left at 5 p. m.
So Luo Jiu and Zhu Ding accompanied him around the base as a way to eat.
They went to the back kitchen of the cafeteria, and the two of them took him to salute a certain master chef in a polite manner, calling him "senior" because this was a certain Men's Doubles World Champion from ten years ago.
They went to the back of the base, where there was a small mountain and a small lake. They passed a gate along the way. The two of them led him to bow politely to the aunt guarding the gate, calling him "senior" because he was the National Games Women's Singles champion in seven years.
They went to large and small conference rooms, equipment gyms, saunas, physical therapy rooms, billiards halls, China Table Tennis sports exhibition halls, etc. Although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs, and most of the people working here are related to the industry, and they are generally older.
It's not that the Chinese National Sports Commission treats the table tennis heroes harshly, but that many old players can't sit still after retirement and take the initiative to work voluntarily. They have become famous and don't want a salary at all. They just want to watch the energetic training of young team members every day.
But you must not think that these old men really have great sentiments for the country and the people. Many old men actually just hope to find an audience when they want to brag.
Since what he was bragging about was his glorious deeds of winning the table tennis ball World Champion, naturally the best audience would be table tennis players.
Is it possible for you to brag to the national football players about your victory?
Aren't you afraid that the national football players will think you are making insinuations and beat you up?
By three o'clock in the afternoon, Wang Chao was finally leaving.
Luo Jiu and Zhu Ding sent him to the entrance of the base. When they walked out, they saw an old man in a white short-sleeved Tang suit sweeping the floor.
Autumn has darkened, and the weather in the imperial capital is chilly, but this old man is wearing very thin clothes. He is sweeping the fallen leaves with a big broom and putting them into piles. He walks with a straight waist and a very good temperament. Wang Chao couldn't help but take a few more glances. He instinctively felt that this person was extraordinary, so he took the initiative to ask, "Should we go and see him?"
Luo Jiu and Zhu Ding looked at each other with strange expressions.
Zhu Ding said, "He is not an old man, he is just a new cleaner recruited by the base in December last year."
Luo Jiu said, "To be precise, it was December 14th. Don't ask me why I remember it so clearly, because this old man kept talking to everyone. He told everyone that December 14th was a very important day, because it was the day when the world opened up and you and I appeared. He also said that he was waiting for a destined person here."
Wang Chao was stunned. "Is he a psycho?"
"Who knows." Zhu Ding spread his hands. "I also asked Little Martial Uncle this question, but Little Martial Uncle said that this old man has no children and no one to take care of him. Even if he is mentally ill, no one will send him to a mental hospital. In addition, he is still strong and sane at ordinary times, so leaving him here sweeping the floor can be regarded as keeping an eye on him, so as to prevent him from running around when he is old, which is unsafe."
Wang Chao nodded and asked, "Then what should I call him?"
Luo Jiu said, "It is said that his name is Jia Sanjiang. Judging from the meaning of this name, his family must have been in business. After all, business is booming all over the world, and the wealth is abundant as far as Sanjiang. This is probably the origin of the name."
But Zhu Ding shook his head and said, "That's not the version I heard. It is said that this person carries an oversized water cup anytime and anywhere. In addition to soaking red dates, wolfberry, honeysuckle, and three more slices of ginger in the cup, he claims to be from the south. He feels that the weather is too cold here in the imperial capital, so he needs ginger slices to ward off the cold. After a long time, everyone gave him the nickname Jia Sanjiang."
At this point, another gust of cold wind blew, and everyone shivered.
But the old man in Tang suit was still sweeping the floor meticulously, even though the huge open space at the entrance of the base had already been swept spotless by him.
"Why doesn't he go in and take a rest?" Wang Chao was puzzled.
"I told you he was sick." Luo Jiu sighed, "When he first came here, they were afraid that he would run around, so they deliberately told him that this job has rewards for perfect attendance, and he must persist every day without stopping. If he can persist for a whole day, At the end of the month, he was given a perfect attendance bonus of 1,500 yuan. So as you can see, he stayed in the square every day, scanning over and over again, even if it was windy or rainy, he would not go inside to hide, just to let everyone see him working."
Wang Chao remained silent.
The three of them stood at the entrance of the base and silently watched the old man sweep the floor. After watching for ten minutes, Wang Chao said softly, "He really worked hard for perfect attendance for 1,500 yuan."
Luo Jiu and Zhu Ding nodded in unison. "Yes, in order to have perfect attendance, he worked really hard. From December 14th to now, he has not had a day off, and works at least five hours a day."
The old man was clearly more than ten meters away, but as if he heard these words, he actually raised his head at this moment, looked at Wang Chao from a distance, and grinned at him. "Hey, destined man, I've finally waited for you."
The wind was a bit loud, so Wang Chao couldn't hear clearly and shouted, "Senior, what did you say?"
"I say, you have to work harder and win Grand Slam as soon as possible." The old man Zhuo Lifeng was wearing a moon-white Tang suit, with fluttering belt and loud laughter. Although he is a psychopath, he does look very good and looks a bit like a reclusive expert., he paused, and his voice suddenly dropped and turned into a murmur, "Also, senior Mao, am I very old? I just found the wrong skin when I came through... You have to call me brother, San Jiang Ge!"