World Table Tennis Championships The sixth match day of the main race.
There are very few games this morning, two Men's Singles semi-finals and two Women's Singles semi-finals.
There are few games this afternoon, two mixed doubles semi-finals, and one semi-final each between Men's Doubles and Women's Doubles.
In fact, any competition event in any field follows this principle of tightening in the front and loosening in the back.
The early schedule is intensive because there are too many players and too many colored pens. The competition is boring and not enjoyable to watch, so we finish it quickly and call it a day.
The schedule is relaxed in the later stages because the games become more exciting as you go later, and every game is worth savoring and watching.
But in a sense, World Table Tennis Championships violated this rule this time.
After a long time, International Table Tennis Federation looked back and summarized this World Table Tennis Championships, and came to the conclusion that only Men's Singles 16 advanced to 8 and Men's Singles's finals were the most worth watching.
When 16 advanced to 8, Wang Chao sharpened his knife with Bayer, and Luo Jiu sharpened his knife with Lin Zijun. Both games were played with ups and downs, which can be called a famous game in history on World Table Tennis Championships.
When 8 went into 4 and 4 went into 2, it was all a crushing game, and the scene was not boring, but the audience's emotions did not fluctuate much. They understood the outcome from the beginning, and there was no twist in the game all the way. It was like a popcorn movie with an overly simple plot. Even if the special effects were turned on, it still made people feel that they were not satisfied.
Specifically, it is this: semi-finals Wang Chao 4: 0 Hook, Luo Jiu 4: 0 Fan Xiaodong.
If the latter scene still makes people feel excusable, then the previous scene really shocked the eyes of fans all over the world.
Since Portugal Open lost to Luo Jiu in the final half a month ago, Hook has suffered a crisis of confidence continuously. His performance in World Table Tennis Championships this time was actually quite good. Along the way, he continuously defeated Bai Feng, the main player of Chinese table tennis, and the first brother of Sweden Michel, and all the games were crushing. It was through these two head-to-head encounters that he rebuilt trust in the hearts of European fans and made everyone admit the fact: Hook has not become weaker. He lost to Luo Jiu just because Luo Jiu became stronger.
Since Hook has not become weaker, theoretically speaking, he should become stronger.
Because he is obviously more stable than before, even his playing style is different from before, and there is no phenomenon of standing still.
Considering that last year Hook almost pushed Sun Tianlong into a desperate situation, and in February this year almost zeroed Luo Jiu at China Open, then it is easy to draw a conclusion: Hook must be stronger than Wang Chao when he participated in Swedish Open in April.
Why?
Because at that time, Wang Chao had just played two peak duels with Sun Tianlong on Table Tennis Super League, winning one and losing one. Although Wang Chao showed The pure technical skills that amazed the whole world, but there is no doubt that he was suppressed by Dragon Team throughout the whole process. If Dragon Team hadn't been in bad health, Wang Chao would have been defeated.
When Hook beat Dragon Team, the scene was completely different. He was pressing Dragon Team throughout the fight, and Dragon Team's body was not in any condition.
At that time, Hook lost because he was not stable enough. In the end, his mentality was blown away by Dragon Team's iron wall defense.
But now that the problem of Hook's mentality and state stability has been completely solved, then of course he is stronger than Wang Chao in April. Assuming that Dragon Team's strength remains constant, then if Dragon Team's state at that time is used as a reference to calculate, Hook should be more than a little stronger than Wang Chao.
As for Hook's loss to Fan Xiaodong on Swedish Open, it cannot be used as a reference, because at that time Hook happened to be under the wrong guidance of Rohlskov. He later left Germany and gradually found the right path.
Ok, since the above analysis is true, fans believe that if Hook beats Wang Chao, even if Wang Chao has improved in the past two months, it should be at least a 50-50 situation. Wang Chao has a chance to win, but it must be very difficult to win.
But when the fight actually started, Wang Chao played very strangely.
He suddenly started a fight with Hook.
"To be honest, when I first found out that Wang Chao wanted to fight me, I actually refused."
When Hook was interviewed after the game, he said this, "Because you can't say that Luo Jiu can beat me to death, so you also want to fight with me, right? You can't say that Luo Jiu can beat me to death, so can you. You can attack me to death, right? Although you are using the same tactical system, it is impossible for me to switch to defense directly. I have to give it a try. If I don't try, I will just give up. The audience will scold me, and they will say, this is not possible Hook, there is no way to play like this..."
Hook is not making fun of you, he is telling the truth.
At first, he fought against Wang Chao, and then he was surprised to find that Wang Chao's defense had indeed improved. He didn't kill anyone with his three consecutive bursts. Instead, he was blocked by Wang Chao's super-fast turning ball on the third board. However, it smelled like Lin Zijun-style Super Speed Defense Mode, which made Hook immediately frightened, because he thought about it many times afterwards and was sure that he might not be able to break through Lin Zijun if he faced off against someone head-on.
Because of this three-point timidity, Hook was not so aggressive in attacking. Wang Chao seized the opportunity to attack. Then he discovered that Wang Chao's offensive style was completely different from Luo Jiu's.
Although he lost to Luo Jiu, he was quite familiar with Luo Jiu's style of play. After all, they had been sparring without any secrets for more than a month, so he thought he should be familiar with Wang Chao's offensive routine. He thought this would be his advantage.
But he found that Wang Chao played completely different from Luo Jiu.
Wang Chao's playing style when playing against him was actually the same as when German Open played Lin Zijun in the final in July. The whole process was stuck, and the playing rhythm and style changed. Hook felt like he was playing against many different people, and every ball he encountered was a completely different style.
In the past, Hook was not afraid of this kind of fancy play, because he was confident that no matter how you jumped around, as long as you dared to give me a chance, you would die if I knocked the board down. He had unparalleled power in the world, and he took the path of using force to overcome ingenuity and simplify the complex.
But this time it was different. It was not that Hook couldn't seize the opportunity, but he tried many times in a row, but the board could never kill anyone.
Then Hook was confused.
Essentially speaking, neither Hook, who fell out of control at the time, nor Hook, who is now the all-powerful China Super League, does not belong to the technical and IQ players. When he laid the foundation, he was different from everyone else. This part of the foundation cannot be rebuilt under any circumstances. The most that can be done is to tinker with it to make it look the same as others on the surface.
But Wang Chao used this strange method to force Hook to follow his rhythm to move, defend, think, and come to the scene to reconstruct a completely new system to play against him, which Hook couldn't do.
Whether the technical and tactical systems of other professional players are simple or complex, whether the closed loop is large or small, they are at least generally mature. In any case, useful parts can be extracted from the mature systems to form a simplified version of the structure.
But the foundation of Hook is incomplete. He only formed a fragile balance with difficulty during the long actual combat process, and then established a slightly stronger balance during Table Tennis Super League. But no matter what, his balance does not come from the bones, but is temporarily built by many different factors. It looks indestructible from the outside, but if you have a way to sneak inside and pull out a few vital pieces of wood from the bottom, it will collapse.
It sounds very abstract, but the truth is this. Wang Chao couldn't do this before because his basic skills were not in place. He had to spend almost all his energy, physical and mental energy on guarding against Hook's speed, strength and rotation. He was exhausted from resisting throughout the whole process and couldn't spare any time to do this.
Now, the new racket allows him to hit the ball with more power and catch the ball with more changes. At the same time, Unrivaled talent allows him to imitate anyone's stunts. He not only learned top offensive methods from Xiao Fei, but also learned top defensive methods from Lin Zijun.
If the previous Malone was a hexagonal warrior with six sides of the same length, then the previous Wang Chao was a grotesque warrior with serious shortcomings in strength, speed, and explosive attributes. But now, he has been out for a full year Two months and two years later, he has never given up on making up for his shortcomings in such a long period of time. Today, on the main competition stage of World Table Tennis Championships, he has completed his transformation and become a simplified hexagonal warrior who can barely see six sides.
The expansion of the "Six Surrounds" has brought about all-round improvements. When he can deal with Hook's ordinary attacks relatively easily, his overall technical lead over Hook is perfectly reflected.
So it's not that Hook is not strong, nor is it that Wang Chao is really that much better than Hook, but that a player like Wang Chao is a Tianke against a player like Hook, as long as the difference in basic indicators between the two sides is not too big.
What's more, Wang Chao doesn't need Hook to train his troops, because he had already completed his training when he defeated Bayer the day before yesterday.
So yesterday when he played Arul, and today when he played Hook, he played concisely and clearly, using the most targeted tactics and the least effort.
But what he didn't expect was that his big victory over Hook would be directly interpreted by the outside world as "this is a showdown given by Wang Chao to Luo Jiu before the decisive battle."
Why?
Because Luo Jiu typed Hook 4:0 on Portugal Open, which took 23 minutes.
And Wang Chao played Hook 4:0 today, which only took 21 minutes.
What a typical tit-for-tat confrontation.
"If the scores are the same, then the time will be used to determine the winner." In the eyes of the fans who were full of souls in the second class, this was already a naked provocation, pushing the atmosphere of the final to a new climax. Many fans were so excited that they didn't even sleep well that night, and their minds were full of thinking about what tomorrow's final would be like.
At noon that day, Wang Chao, Luo Jiu, and He Jingping ate together in a restaurant, and a reporter took photos of the scene, triggering a new climax of discussion.
The core of their discussion is: Why did Luo Jiu pick up the beef from his plate and put it into He Jingping's bowl? Why did He Jingping put the meat on Wang Chao's plate again? Why didn't Wang Chao eat coriander, but put it on Luo Jiu's plate without being polite?
This is obviously a problem!
"Dark War".
"A story that has to be told between three men"
"Your coriander and my meat"
"What's mine is yours, but what's yours is his, but what's his is not mine"
"Do you value the senior senior brother or the junior junior brother more?"
"We obviously didn't have dinner together a few days ago, but we suddenly met today. This can't be a coincidence."
In short, in the eyes of the fans, this meal can be called the Banquet of Hongmen. There are two peerless disciples, a teacher who is known as the most handsome in the world, the palms and backs of his hands are full of flesh, each of them has a heart as high as the sky, and everyone is unparalleled in domineering. There must be so many undercurrents in this meal. Maybe every movement and gesture, even every cough, every breath, every pore is filled with the ubiquitous confrontation before the decisive battle.
But in fact, they really just had a simple meal together...
Many times, if you get closer and look at the truth about those epic and epic stories in history, you will find that they are just a few flesh-and-blood mortals doing some simple things that they can do every day. It's just that you add a halo to them, fabricate the background, exaggerate the emotions, and add a background music, and then it becomes inexplicably emotional.
In fact, at noon that day, Wang Chao was still complaining to Luo Jiu with a frown on his face. "Brother, Taiwan Island Combination is really difficult to fight. I'm really afraid that after fighting you, my energy will be severely damaged and I won't have the strength to deal with them again."
Luo Jiu laughed and scolded, "Pretend, keep pretending, even I know how to fight Taiwan Island Combination, don't you know? I see, it's not Taiwan Island Combination you're worried about, it's me Is that right? You are paralyzing me here, no, I am going to protest, obviously all the mixed doubles finals this year are played before the Men's Singles finals, why should they be put behind this time?"
It's a simple joke.
But by this time, every move of the two people would be magnified and interpreted, so fans soon began to discuss. "Why is Wang Chao's expression so ugly? Is he trying to show off to Luo Jiu?"
"He Jingping is sitting next to him and he doesn't even care. I heard that He Jingping prefers younger disciples. It seems to be true."
"Poor Luo Jiu, still forcing a smile."
"He was so gentle, I really cried to death."
"If it is passed on, there is internal discord within the powerful clan. The brothers under He Jingping are at war with each other. They have completely turned against each other. Huaping may be in chaos next year."
"It has been passed down that there are internal differences within the giant club. He Jingping suspects that he wants to start his own business. He has completely turned against Zhu Zeshi. One of the two sides will definitely withdraw from the coaching staff next year."
"If the news continues, there will be internal disagreements within Huaping, and coaches will start their own businesses. Huaping may fall apart next year."
"Pass it on, Huaping will not have a national system next year. Spring is coming for all associations, Oye."
When the mixed doubles started that afternoon, Ichikawa Mima made a harsh statement. "We will never fall in the same place twice. Even if the whole world doesn't think highly of us, we will still work hard to charge towards our goal."
So the reporter asked her partner Niuwa Xiaoxi: "What is your goal this time World Table Tennis Championships?"
Niuwa Xiaoxi replied lazily, "Get the card."
The game started at 1:30 in the afternoon local time.
Thirty minutes later, Tang Dynasty Combination 4:0 crushed the Sakura Country combination.
During the post-game interview, the reporter asked Ichikawa Mima again, "How do you feel about this game?"
Ichikawa Mima gritted his teeth and said with a stern face, "I only used 30% of my strength... I am not satisfied with my performance, but I believe I will win the championship next time."
The reporter asked Niuwa Xiaoxi again.
Niuwa Xiaoxi replied lazily, "I got the bronze medal and the goal was accomplished."
What followed was the combination Taiwan Island Combination vs Daehan Minguk. In the end, Taiwan Island Combination lived up to the expectations of fans around the world. They defeated their opponents 4:2 and had the last laugh.
But in the post-match interview, the winning and losing teams' speeches were surprisingly consistent.
Lin Zijun said, "I think we haven't done enough. If we enter the finals in this state and face Tang Dynasty Combination, it may be difficult for us to win."
Daehan Minguk's female player Che Songxin said bluntly, "We also hope that Taiwan Island Combination can win, but their female players are too weak... If my partner Xian Youwen's small ball skills on the table were a little better, we would have won today."
Due to the special historical background, Daehan Minguk has not participated many times, and the contestants have not had much experience in speaking publicly internationally, so they have not yet learned those all-round speaking skills. As the soul of this group, Che Songxin is now recognized by the world The number one chipper in female table tennis is, after all, just a young and energetic 18-year-old girl. After thinking about it, she finally couldn't hold back and said something quite controversial, "If I were paired with player Lin Zijun, I might still be able to compete with Tang Dynasty Combination."
This statement can be said to be very offensive, and it also caused a heated discussion in the table tennis community. However, everyone was discussing and discussing, but unexpectedly, someone asked on the most famous table tennis forum in Europe: "Why don't you try what she said?"
It was obviously just a casual question, but countless people commented below and replied, all copying and pasting. "Why don't you try what she said?"
The reason why this happens is actually because the world has been suffering for a long time.
On the new mixed doubles track, Huaping was too disrespectful to others. Before everyone could overtake at the corner, Huaping sent two people to sit at the finish line.
How can you play like this?
In traditional events, Huaping is always strong when it is strong, and it always gives others a glimmer of hope. However, mixed doubles is obviously a new track, but after half a year, everyone saw, oh, this is actually the event in which Huaping has the greatest advantage.
This is unacceptable to everyone.
In addition, in the past ten years, International Table Tennis Federation has not allowed other associations to form cross-association teams, such as Kimchi Country and Daehan Minguk. Although they are tit-for-tat on zz, the citizens of both sides are compatriots whose blood is thicker than water, so they have formed cross-association combinations many times. In the Women's Doubles project, they once won World Champion decades ago.
It can be said that there are lessons learned from the past.
Since Kimchi Country and Daehan Minguk can form teams across associations.
Since Hua Guo and the Beautiful Country also had a cross team formation a while ago.
So why can't we try Daehan Minguk and Bay Island?
So a few days later, Jiang Peirong, who was very interested in fame and fortune, quietly sent a private email to the Daehan Minguk Table Tennis Association, actively inviting Daehan Minguk to form a cross-association team.
This fits his character very well.
After all, his biggest achievement as a player was teaming up with a female player from China Table Tennis Team and winning the mixed doubles World Champion.
(There is another update, please wait)