It takes ten hours to travel from the imperial capital to Sweden, but because there is a six-hour time difference between China and Sweden, everyone arrived in the evening, and the time was just right.
It was already April, but it was still quite cool in the Swedish capital Stockholm. It was said that the temperature could even drop to below zero in the middle of the night. Everyone put on thick clothes when they got off the plane, walked out of the airport under the leadership of the organizer, got on the bus, and went straight to their hotel.
Wang Chao felt a little uncomfortable.
Because he found that for some reason, people on the women's team kept looking in his direction, and when he looked back, the other person quickly avoided them.
It would be fine if he was just one person, but almost every female table tennis team member looked at him, which made him feel a little uncomfortable, as if he had turned into a giant panda.
Little did he know that since the mixed doubles male players were confirmed, the women's team had really caused quite a stir.
Wang Wendong came back to convey the instructions at that time and made it clear that Huaping's view is that veterans should be matched with veterans, young players should be matched with young players, and young and old should never be matched. Therefore, since Wang Chao is a mixed doubles male player, the female players cannot be selected from the top 5, but must be selected from the more than 20 young talents in the first and second teams.
The situation on the women's team is different from that of the men's team. The strength of the men's team is very different. Basically, a team can be divided into six or seven levels, but the women's team is Great Demon King. Except for the top three, which are difficult to distinguish, the small flowers are also complicated, and no one has an absolute advantage.
In the final analysis, it is because there is a natural gap between female players and male players in terms of pure physical strength, which makes it more difficult for them to kill with a killing blow, so their confrontation is more technical.
Since it is a technique, there must be mutual reinforcement and mutual restraint. After all, changes in each factor, such as forehand, backhand, straight board, horizontal board, tight grip, loose grip, landing point, angle, and rotation, may cause discomfort to the opponent.
Wang Wendong held a meeting with the coaches for a long time, but still couldn't decide on a candidate. In the end, he simply made the final decision. "Then let's have an internal cycle. Whoever comes first will be chosen. It's fair and reasonable, and no one else can have any objections."
Therefore, in order to find a partner for Wang Chao, all the young players from the first and second teams within the women's table tennis team need to go through an unprecedented super cycle.
According to calculations, this big cycle will take at least three days to complete, but Swedish Open is imminent, so Wang Wendong decided to wait until Swedish Open is finished before starting the big cycle.
And this time the open competition was also included in the assessment scope of the female table tennis stars.
So none of the top five female table tennis players showed up this time. Instead, the thirteen relatively top performers all signed up for the open competition.
Wang Wendong said that whoever can take home the gold medal will become a very important consideration in the internal selection.
So the little flowers were all red-eyed and fought hard for this qualification.
After all, not everyone has as many choices as Wang Chao. Women's table tennis is still indestructible in the top 5. Girls want to go to the Olympics, and playing mixed doubles is their only chance. As for the Olympic quota for Women's Singles, are you thinking about Taozi?
It's no wonder that the little girls couldn't help but take a peek at Wang Chao, because they knew for sure that this boy would partner with one of their own group in the future to compete in the Olympic mixed doubles and fight for the first mixed doubles gold medal in history.
That evening, the organizer broadcast the lottery ceremony live.
As soon as the latest world rankings were displayed on the big screen at the scene, many people exclaimed.
The rankings have changed dramatically compared to last month.
The first is Brazilian player Hook, who jumped directly from fourth place to second place, squeezing out Xiao Fei, who did not participate in China Open, and Lin Li, who participated in China Open but had a poor record.
With Sun Tianlong dominating the rankings all year round, second place is often equivalent to first place. It can be said that this position has not been obtained by non-Chinese associations players in many years. This also proves that today's Hook, even if there are still such and such problems, he has indeed become a serious problem for Huaping.
Then there is Luo Jiu, which has been breaking out from the end of last year to this year. With a large number of points from the China Open championship, it jumped from sixth to fourth this time.
Huaping has always regarded the top five as one group and the bottom five as one. Luo Jiu has not entered this group before. Even after achieving great success, it was still unable to enter because of too few points. Now that it has finally entered, it can be regarded as well-deserved. Strength and ranking have finally complemented each other.
England player Pike, although China Open has an average record, still jumped up with a weak point increase, squeezing Mizutori Hato, who was originally ranked 8th.
In addition, there are two other people in the original top 20 who have made significant progress, one is Lin Zijun and the other is Sissifield.
Lin Zijun directly won the bronze medal in China Open, while Sissifield finally found his future path. The two jumped from 18th and 20th in the world to 12th and 15th respectively.
Finally, the two most eye-catching young players, Chinese table tennis player Wang Chao and Swedish player Morad, have finally reached the top of the rankings due to their outstanding performance in the past six months.
At present, Wang Chao has directly rushed to the 22nd place in the world rankings with one T2 championship and one Hong Kong Open championship, which is below Zou Zhengyu. If T2 did not have too few points, he could even reach the top 20.
And Morad has reached the quarter-finals and semi-finals in recent competitions, and has also reached the 32nd place in the world rankings.
Although this ranking does not seem to be high, considering that a large number of Swedish Open players chose to be absent this time, in fact, both of them can avoid the qualifications and directly enter the main competition.
Subsequently, the seed players from the eight divisions of the main draw were directly displayed on the big screen.
1/8: Hook
2/8: Lin Zijun
3/8: Sissifield
4/8: Zhang Benkuang
5/8: Li Zhengzhi
6/8: Wolf
7/8: k. Michel
8/8: Mizutori Hato
The last seeded player Zhang Benkuang happens to be ranked 20th in the world. Behind him is Zou Zhengyu, and then Wang Chao. Zou Zhengyu did not come, so Wang Chao became the first non-seeded player to be drawn to determine the group.
At this time, you can see the change in Wang Chao's identity.
In the past few competitions, when we were divided into groups, everyone paid more attention to the veterans who have been famous for many years, or the new supernovas in the world table tennis world. Although Wang Chao has always had a good record, everyone still habitually ignores the young players.
Of course, one of the reasons why Huaping's five main players have attracted so much attention is also one of the reasons.
But it's different now.
When the name Wang Chao was first played on the big screen, almost all the audience at the scene marveled and shouted, as if it was reaching a climax.
The director scanned the faces of the seeded contestants one by one and found that many of them had unnatural expressions on their faces. The three young geniuses, Lin Zijun, Li Zhengzhi, and Zhang Benkuang, all closed their eyes and muttered something, as if they were praying. The content was naturally that they hoped that Wang Chao would not be grouped with him, because they felt that it would be difficult for them to win.
This has nothing to do with fighting spirit and confidence, but an objective consideration that any professional player will have in any event. If it is a strong opponent, then try to postpone the fight again, because this can ensure more wins ahead and get more points, and points are the life of an athlete.
Michel and Wolf looked calm. They were both veterans, and their emotions and anger were indistinguishable.
The No. 1 seed of this tournament, Hook, was opening his mouth, showing his signature exaggerated smile.
It's obvious that he has something on his mind. It's unclear whether he is eager to fight or hopes to postpone the fight. The only thing that can be determined by this smile is that he attaches great importance to Wang Chao.
As for Mizutori Hato from District 8, his face turned black.
No one knows how complicated Mizutori Hato's mood is at this time.
He was beaten up by Wang Chao in Hong Kong Open, and then he made a lot of nonsense and successfully established a feud with Wang Chao. After that, he analyzed it carefully and found that among the three people in Huaping who had enmity with him, Sun Tianlong was the most kind. Therefore, in order to allow himself to play in open competitions, he could only choose to participate in the same event as Sun Tianlong.
This time Swedish Open, Huaping announced its intention to compete as early as the beginning of the year, and it clearly stated Sun Tianlong to participate.
Mizutori Hato therefore chose to sign up.
He was quite happy at that time, because Sun Tianlong and Luo Jiu made it clear to Kings do not meet kings, so he only had to keep an eye on Sun Tianlong and he would never be hunted down by Luo Jiu.
But when he really came, he found that Sun Tianlong actually retired from the competition and was replaced by Wang Chao.
Although Wang Chao is not as skilled as Luo Jiu, he is stable, but he is insidious. If we really fight, he might be able to produce more disgusting effects than Luo Jiu.
Mizutori Hato wanted to leave at that time, but he was unwilling to give in. After all, he had come here and had to pay for his own air tickets and accommodation. It was really not cheap.
He thought that he might not be so unlucky. If he and Wang Chao were in different halves, they would only be able to meet each other in the finals, but could he reach the finals? Eighty percent of the time you can't get in.
That being the case, there's nothing to be afraid of.
At this moment, the ownership of Wang Chao is about to be determined. Mizutori Hato's heartbeat is very fast, but it is not the taste of love.
However, Murphy's Law soon came into play, and Wang Chao was drawn into District 8 and became the No. 4 player in District 8.
Mizutori Hato I feel like scolding my mother...
The lottery is still going on, and it will be postponed according to the world ranking order. Morad also directly entered the main draw and was drawn to District 6.
Then came the German teenager Qiu Shang, who entered zone 2.
The 16 main draw players were quickly drawn, followed by the qualifying draw, but not many people watched at this time, because most of the qualifying players were unknown and relatively low in strength. Their games did not have formal live broadcasts and commentary. It was often the die-hard fans who looked for interesting games to watch on their own from multiple official sources.
However, this time the qualifying round still attracted some attention because there were three more Chinese table tennis players among them.
In the two open competitions in February and March this year, the qualifying players of China Table Tennis were almost avalanche. This is one of the reasons why the outside world continues to look down on China Table Tennis. This time, among the three Chinese Table Tennis players, two are the previous losers, namely Liang Kunpeng and Gao Mingyuan, but in addition, there is another 15-year-old youngster named Fan Xiaodong. No one in the world table tennis world has ever heard of this name, but they suddenly discovered that the head coach of Fan Xiaodong turned out to be Qin Huachang.
The name of a person is the shadow of a tree. Just when Qin Huachang stops there, the whole world will know that this Fan Xiaodong must be extraordinary.
They couldn't help but think of the 15-year-old Lu Feiyang sent by Huaping in T2 last year.
Although Lu Feiyang has a poor record this year, there is no doubt that his debut match last year was amazing. The match in which he defeated Lao Zhuang head-on is still talked about. There are even extreme fans on Bay Island clamoring for Lin Zijun to avenge Lao Zhuang.
But don't forget, when Lu Feiyang debuted, his teacher Zhu Zeshi was not there.
Today, Fan Xiaodong made his debut. Qin Huachang, who is considered bigger than Zhu Zeshi by the outside world, came to the scene in person.
This is very scary when you think about it.
For a time, the world table tennis world turned a lot of attention to the qualifying tournament.
Of course, the qualifying round will actually start tomorrow morning.
And tonight, as the draw ended, many media from various countries who came with the team also became active.
Wang Chao, which usually goes unnoticed, was directly intercepted by reporters from German media today.
This is a young lady with blond hair and blue eyes. She wants to do an exclusive interview with Wang Chao, and she brought a Chinese translator with her. She obviously had a premeditated plan and came directly to Wang Chao.
However, before Wang Chao nodded in agreement, someone came to cut off Hu.
The visitor is reporter England, a young lady with the same blond hair and blue eyes, the same charming and bright smile. She smiles, she blinks, she licks her lips, she inadvertently flips her hair. She invites Wang Chao to have a drink at the bar next door, just asking for a first-hand interview.
At this moment, the two young ladies are facing each other tit for tat, a confrontation between two heroes. Please don't think that I used the wrong word. It is indeed a confrontation between two heroes, because really, they both have broad minds.
However, it was of no use, because someone else broke in next.
This time it was a middle-aged uncle, but he was no ordinary person. He was Tavares, a well-known Brazilian sports reporter.
Tavares became famous in European forums by following the training videos of Wang Chao and Wu Li. Now he has become famous. When he came up, he enthusiastically held Wang Chao's hand and shook it vigorously. He said in half-baked Chinese: "Your... training... video... Derby... haha, I filmed it."
He was also accompanied by a Chinese translator, who was obviously here specifically for Wang Chao.
At this moment, Wang Chao was quite emotional.
Unknowingly, my identity is really different.
Now, in the eyes of foreign table tennis associations and media people, I am already a giant without realizing it, and media from various countries are already vying to find me for exclusive interviews.
Of course, even a giant cannot accept three exclusive interviews at the same time, so in the end, through comparison, Wang Chao chose... Germany's little sister.
It has nothing to do with majestic mountains, broad minds, Mariana Trench or anything like that. It's just that Wang Chao feels that things should be done on a first-come, first-served basis.