Even as he stepped onto the court again, Wang Chao had yet to fully recover from a certain emotion.
Although he had been waiting for his match in the arena the whole time, he could imagine how grim the faces of the Chinese table tennis coaches who had come with the team must have been at this moment.
Xiao Fei and Lin Li, the safety net for this Open, had both been eliminated.
Hong Kong was practically one of their own, yet Weng Chunting had also been eliminated.
Lu Feiyang's exit had likewise come as an unexpected blow to Chinese table tennis.
The situation had still looked excellent yesterday. After he defeated Mizutori Hato today, some people on domestic forums had even dreamed of sweeping the championship, runner-up, and third-place finishes. But then the tide had turned abruptly, and in barely an hour and a half, Chinese table tennis had been almost completely shattered.
The most ironic part was that it had been shattered by their own people.
Wang Chao completely understood Yan Ping'an and Fang Xiaobo's mindset, and he respected the effort they had put in. But at the same time, he was certain that neither of them could make it to the end.
Xiao Fei had gone easy on him in the end. Wang Chao had seen it.
The first four games had been so close that Yan Ping'an could actually have broken down in the fifth, because his emotions had been too intense. As the saying went, rigid strength could not last. Xiao Fei, meanwhile, had played steadily throughout, his emotions exceptionally stable.
But Xiao Fei had softened at that moment.
He was the most laid-back of the five main players. He neither harbored dreams of a Grand Slam nor possessed the fighting spirit of someone in