Before the arrival of Sun Tianlong, China Open kicked off the event first.
As a regular event held more than ten times a year, the competition in China has a completely different meaning from any other station in the world table tennis world.
In terms of points, there is no difference between the points of China Open and other Platinum leg.
In terms of prize money, China Open is not even comparable to the open tournaments in Qatar and other places funded by the extremely wealthy sheiks.
In terms of venue, China Open chooses to hold it in Tianfu City all year round, and Tianfu City is not one of the most developed cities in the world.
But because Chinese table tennis is invincible in the world, coming to play in China and winning in China has become a very symbolic thing for the world's top players.
This feeling is similar to how foreign players want to win the title of China Super League's best individual player.
This is the symbol of the uncrowned king.
China Open has always been a gathering of top players over the years, and almost no players would give up on this event. They don't even come here solely for the points. They just come to witness the performances of legendary top players, which is a rare experience for them.
Therefore, three days before the official start of the Open, countless foreign players have entered Tianfu City.
Almost all of the table tennis powers were out in force, as if they were going to fight a decisive battle.
The German troika are all here, Hans. Bayer, Dimitri. Wolf, Sissifield. Patrick, including the newly rising Asian player Qiu Shang and his German partner.
A month ago, after playing Hong Kong Open, Bayer actually announced that his old injury had recurred. As for Wolf, he also spared no effort in the semi-final match against Pike. He exhausted his energy and energy and fought the most bloody and tenacious battle in recent years. Both of them are injured, but even if they are injured, they still have to come and watch the fun. If the draw is good, they can play and recover while watching the market. They can choose to withdraw from the game at any time. If the draw is not good, they will withdraw directly and treat themselves as German spectators watching the game.
Swedish k. Michel and m. Michel came with their junior Morad.
k. Michel is actually undergoing difficult technical modifications under the guidance of Old Wa this month, but even under such circumstances, he refused to miss this Open. He chose to temporarily interrupt the technical modifications and come to Tianfu City to seek opportunities. His mentality is similar to that of the German duo. Whether he plays or not depends on whether the draw is good or not.
England's Pike and Brazil's Hook came here carrying the expectations of two countries respectively. It is worth mentioning that Brazilian journalist Tavares also came here in high spirits.
A month ago, he recorded a video of Wang Chao and Wu Li practicing. After returning home, he became an instant hit. With this, his name was cleared and his career was on the rise.
It's just that this time he was very cautious. He had been working hard on his homework since arriving and did not dare to plan any weird street interviews.
Kimchi Country's Li Zhengzhi and Zhu Shixian are here. Their performance has been poor in the past six months and their luck in the lottery has been extremely bad. This time they are gearing up and vowing to draw a good lottery.
Zhang Benkuang of Sakura Country came with the Sakura Country men's table tennis team. After not seeing each other for a short time, he seemed to have grown in size again and looked very motivated.
Everyone, both named and unnamed, came.
Among the top 50 in the world rankings, apart from a number of Chinese table tennis players, non-Chinese associations is the only one absent, Mizutori Hato, because he has decided that he would rather play Sun Tianlong than Luo Jiu Wang Chao - let us pray for his open mouth.
In fact, the registration rules for the Open over the years have been adjusted according to the specific conditions of the host country. Most organizers cannot bear the excessive number of players. They will add many clauses to block some players from the registration threshold.
This is not only because too many people will cause excessive expenses in terms of hospitality, accommodation, food, etc., but also because it will greatly extend the game time.
In fact, the overall duration of an open competition is usually three days, but Hong Kong Open a month ago played for four full days. Even so, the hell schedule had to be activated in the first day of qualifying to ensure that the game could be completed on time.
The last time Minato was able to host more than 200 players was because Minato was actually Hua Ping's little brother and could often ask for help from the Chinese Sports General Administration.
The reason why China Open is so special is probably because it is the only open competition that does not limit the number of registered players.
At this point, Huaping, which has dominated the world for 20 years, has shown its broad mind and tolerance.
In terms of candidates for the China Table Tennis Open over the years, Huaping has shown a certain domineering attitude.
"You can come with thousands of troops, but I will only go with one, two or three people."
In this open tournament, Huaping has never had a day when its main force was fully utilized.
Even if Huaping knows that losing the gold medal to a foreigner on its own territory will be very difficult for Chinese fans to accept, it is something that even Cai Guodong will have to explain to the General Administration of Sports.
The reason why foreign players flock to this station and come to see the wind even if they are injured is because they also want to see the excitement of Huaping.
But Huaping still maintains this calm attitude.
This is both confidence and helplessness.
Huaping was really put on the barbecue grill.
More than two decades of glory have forced them to appear calm and confident, and they are unwilling to show their suffering, worry and anxiety in front of the world table tennis world.
When dividing the cake at the beginning of the year, Cai Guodong complained secretly about China Open. The head coach admitted in front of all members of the coaching staff that he wanted to send all the main players to play, and wanted Luo Jiu and Sun Tianlong to go together, as a double insurance.
However, this is neither in line with the annual plan of the Qinmen Zhu Clan behind Sun Luo, nor in line with Huaping's consistent attitude towards China Open over the years.
Therefore, in order to maintain the competitiveness, in the end it is still Sun Tianlong and Luo Jiu who compete for the playing spots.
Wang Chao finally overtook Qin Huachang and secured this position for Luo Jiu, which also put infinite pressure on Luo Jiu.
As the ultimate player in this battle, if Luo Jiu fails in this battle, the consequences will be quite serious.
So in the end, the final list of personnel sent by Huaping at this station is: Luo Jiu, Lin Li, Bai Feng, Lu Feiyang, Sun Zhongwen, Yan Ping'an, Fang Xiaobo, Ma Angxing, Hu Buming.
The above are Wang Chao's acquaintances. As for those who are not familiar with Wang Chao, there are also some young players from National Second Team, as well as some veterans from First Team who maintain their rankings purely by mixing points.
Miraculously, this includes Liaoning Province Zhonggang Club's second singles player Qi Hao, who is about to face Spade Q.
It is said that the reason for player Qi Hao to participate is this, "Anyway, he rarely made it out of the qualifying rounds in the past, so let him try. If he gets into the main draw, then work hard. If he still can't get in, then come back and play Table Tennis Super League."
Such a weird reason was actually allowed by Cai Guodong, also because Qi Hao is really too weird.
He is not very old, he is 25 this year, and he is in the same group as Bai Feng. In various assessments within the national team, he has beaten Bai Feng all year round.
Yes, you read that right, he can beat Bai Feng, the main player of the national team all year round.
In fact, he can beat up a lot of people. He can basically beat up anyone who has been in First Team for more than two years.
In the Table Tennis Super League competition in these years, Qi Hao has also defeated all the national team players. He will never be inferior to anyone.
Even in the internal direct competition of the three major events in the past three years, he once had an amazing record of defeating Sun Tianlong and winning the first place in the direct competition.
He was such a fierce man. He competed in the World Series for three years and competed dozens of times. He only made it to the main draw once and was eliminated in the first round. The rest fell in the qualifying rounds. He lost in various ways and died in all kinds of strange ways. Being tortured and killed by unknown foreign players who were not ranked over a hundred in the world was simply a common occurrence.
Do you think this person's potential is high or low?
Do you think Cai Guodong should continue to give him a chance?
In fact, Cai Guodong was worried a lot about letting him enter China Open. He was not afraid of anything else, but he was afraid that this guy would accidentally enter the main match, and be placed in a group with Luo Jiu by accident, and then the small universe would explode and Luo Jiu would be directly destroyed.
That would be great fun.
Of course there are expectations.
What if this guy accidentally enters the main match, is put in a group with Hook by accident, and the small universe explodes and destroys Hook?
That would be great.
So until now, the Huaping coaching staff doesn't know whether to pray for him to win or to pray for him to lose. Perhaps only his own head coach sincerely hopes that he will win.
Of course, head coach Liaoning Province Zhonggang Club 100% hopes that he will lose, because in this way, Liaoning Province Zhonggang can guarantee the greatest chance of winning when facing Spade Q.
It was also in this atmosphere of impending storms that Liaoning Province Zhonggang Club and his party arrived at Jiangcheng City three days in advance and were warmly received by Black Spade Q Club.
This "warm reception" was by no means a cliche, but even the owner behind the club, Fan Xiaofan, took the bus with all the members of Spade Q and personally followed the bus to the airport to pick them back up. Along the way, they greeted and asked various questions. It didn't look like an opponent who was about to fight to the death in three days, but more like a fan picking up the star.
The root cause is Sun Tianlong.
Sun Tianlong is so popular that he is like a god in the hearts of Chinese fans and even China Table Tennis practitioners.
This is not just because of his unprecedented record, but also because of his consistent image.
Over the years, he has always been diligent and low-key. He has never had any scandals or done anything inappropriate. Instead, he has occasionally spread many touching stories.
Besides, he's not bad looking either.
As an athlete, he is naturally in excellent shape. He has good facial features, a firm temperament, a bright image, a decent conversation, and knows how to deal with others. He is neither arrogant nor groveling.
He is the only table tennis player who has reached the highest position in the world without any talent.
He is also the only hexagon fighter recognized worldwide.
He has never publicly said a word of bitterness. What he said most after winning the championship was to thank the coach and the team. But anyone who thinks about it can think of how much unimaginable hard work he has put in to get to where he is today.
The perfect idol——Sun Tianlong.
Senior fanboy——Fan Xiaofan.
This is the truth of the matter.
To Wang Chao's extreme surprise, there was someone accompanying the team who should never be here: Qin Huachang.
"Shouldn't you be at Tianfu City now?" Wang Chao asked.
Qin Huachang looked very unhappy today. After seeing Wang Chao, he kept blowing his beard and staring, as if Wang Chao had offended him. When Wang Chao asked this question, he just snorted coldly and squinted at him, "Why, I can't come?"
Wang Chao can only apologize.
When he represents a powerful family, he can naturally try every means to plot against Qin Huachang, but when he represents an individual, he must give full respect to this dark, lanky senior who looks like a bad guy.
So he could only guess in his heart what Qin Huachang was here for.
You must know that Liaoning Province Zhonggang itself has a head coach, and it is not Qin Huachang's turn to come as a guest coach.
Compared with the World Series, Table Tennis Super League's game is relatively simple. In terms of formation, the national team coach must be better than Table Tennis Super League coach.
So what is the significance of the arrival of Qin Huachang?
Could it be that you want Sun Tianlong to torture me on the spot?
He doesn't have that much hatred for me, right?
Thinking of this, Wang Chao shrank his neck. He was not very confident. In fact, he had indeed plotted against Qin Huachang many times recently.
But then he thought that the national coach was not allowed to give on-the-spot guidance during the civil war between Chinese table tennis players. This was an unspoken rule. Could it be that Qin Huachang didn't even want to lose his face?
Well, his old man is really not a shameless person.
Just as they were puzzled, the Liaoning Province Zhonggang players stayed at Jiangcheng City. That night, Sun Tianlong took the initiative to visit Wang Chao and invited him to watch the game together.
The one I saw was naturally China Open.
The day before the competition was a draw, and the eight seeded players determined before the draw were Lin Li, Hook, Bayer, Luo Jiu, Bai Feng, Pike, k. Michel and Weng Chunting.
The world rankings of these eight people are 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11 respectively.
It is worth mentioning that after experiencing Hong Kong Open, although the points gap between Lin Li, Hook and Bayer has further narrowed, it has not affected the world ranking for the time being.
On the contrary, Luo Jiu successfully rushed to the front of Bai Feng due to two highlights in the past six months, pushing Bai Feng, which was originally ranked 6th, to 7th.
England player Pike and Swedish player Michel also successfully entered the top 10 with their results in Hong Kong Open.
Then came the draw of the remaining eight players who were directly selected for the main draw. The rules were the same as Hong Kong Open. The two players in each group still occupied the No. 1 and No. 4 positions respectively. They did not compete with each other in the first round.
The final partition situation is as follows:
Area 1/8: Lin Li, Ochomirov.
Zone 2/8: Luo Jiu, Wolf.
Zone 3/8: Bai Feng, Li Zhengzhi.
Zone 4/8: Weng Chunting, Zhang Benkuang.
Zone 5/8: Michel, Lin Zijun.
Zone 6/8: Pike, Zhu Shixian.
Area 7/8: Bayer, Fang Xiaobo.
Zone 8/8: Hook, Yan Ping'an.
The draw before the qualifying round was actually not very topical, so taking this opportunity, Wang Chao asked Sun Tianlong: "Brother Long, in this round of competition, are you playing one single or two?"
Sun Tianlong seemed extremely calm, without even the slightest hesitation, and said directly, "Of course it's an order."
Then he asked, "What about you?"
Wang Chao also acted extremely calmly and said straight away, "Then I'll play the second single. I don't want to fight you."
Sun Tianlong laughs.
Wang Chao also laughed.
Wang Chao knows in his heart that although Sun Tianlong is a hero, how can any Chinese table tennis player be truly upright?
The truly upright boy has been chewed to pieces in the internal competition.
Sun Tianlong also knows in his heart that Wang Chao is just a small silver coin, so don't believe even a punctuation mark in what Wang Chao says.
I can't calculate Wang Chao, but it doesn't matter, because I brought the teacher with me this time.
So I only need to practice ball, and for the rest, this is a head-to-head battle between Xiao Yin Coin and Lao Yin Bi.
Because there are too many players, this qualifying round cannot be completed in one day no matter what. Therefore, the schedule this time is not as hellish as Hong Kong Open. You can have two days to play slowly.
These two days were exactly the time for Spade Q and Liaoning Province Zhonggang to line up behind closed doors to plot against each other and practice targeted ball games with each other.
After these two days, on the first day of China Open, Wang Chao will truly face the most terrifying opponent in its history, and perhaps the most terrifying opponent in the history of the world.
At this time, the draw has ended, and the qualifying round will not officially start until tomorrow, so Sun Tianlong said goodbye and left, then turned around and went into Qin Huachang's room next door. The room was full and everyone was waiting.
And Wang Chao also opened the door again after sending Sun Tianlong away, turned around and went to Fan Xiaofan's room on the other floor. The room was also full and everyone was waiting.
(Brothers, this is the first update today. Please bear with me. This time, the Open and Table Tennis Super League lines are parallel. I have to spend some time on the settings. I'm almost done today. I will definitely make up for what I owe today. I'm sure)