In the eyes of the audience, this year's mixed doubles final was a bit strange.
At the beginning of the first game, the two sides were at war with each other, as if they were enemies who killed their father, but as they continued to fight, it seemed like it was an exhibition match.
Tang Yuanyuan is still trying to kill herself. Whenever she gets a chance, she will charge forward, allowing Lin Zijun to use her strength to fight.
Wang Chao is still trying to compete with Lin Zijun for speed. Although he can't compete, he sometimes relies on prediction, sometimes he relies on gambling, sometimes he relies on retreating, and sometimes he relies on blindness, and he can actually have a success rate of 30% to 40%.
Lin Zijun also relaxed. In the first game, he received the ball from Tang Yuanyuan. He did not force the attack, but played a lot of tricks, occasionally chipping, occasionally pushing, occasionally moving, occasionally changing lines, sometimes long or short, left or right, as if he was showing himself.
In the second game, he received the ball from Wang Chao, but Wang Chao stopped serving short backspin and began to serve all kinds of strange balls, as if it was a display of the serving encyclopedia. So Lin Zijun also cooperated to show a wave of his own delicate skills in judging and handling the serve. It can be said that the two cooperated well and each got what they needed, and both won rounds of applause from the audience.
So the only one who was cautious from beginning to end was Zhen Jing. When facing Wang Chao in the first game, she always used the safest way to catch the ball. When facing Tang Yuanyuan in the second game, even if there was an opportunity, she did not attack. She controlled the ball throughout the game without leakage. She is a woman more stable than a defensive tower.
From the perspective of on-court strategy, Taiwan Island Combination is actually in the lead, because Wang Chao cannot beat the opponent with speed.
But because there are too many loopholes in Zhen Jing, the points lost by Tang Dynasty Combination in terms of speed can often be earned back in Zhen Jing.
In this way, the situation was actually evenly matched. The score increased alternately from the first game, and finally Tang Dynasty Combination 11:9 won a small victory.
In the second game, the situation remained the same, except that Wang Chao began to improve the quality of the board, and Lin Zijun also began to speed up. In the end, Tang Dynasty Combination still won 11:9.
Just Zhen Jing is very wronged.
She was already the most cautious of the four people present, but Taiwan Island Combination lost almost all of her points from her.
On the contrary, on Tang Dynasty Combination's side, Wang Chao lost more points than Tang Yuanyuan.
The problem is, for a character like Wang Chao, no matter how much he loses points, no one will think that he is a loser. At most, they will just think that he has overplayed his game.
In terms of female player matchup data, Tang Yuanyuan is undoubtedly far ahead of Zhen Jing because Wang Chao shares the pot.
So Zhen Jing, who works the hardest, looks the best.
"What are you doing? Just catch me and bully me, right?"
Zhen Jing was the oldest one present, and the other three were all 18 years old, so Zhen Jing couldn't lose her temper because it would look very immature, so she could only hold her breath and silently carry on.
In the third game, everyone played more elaborately. First, the score climbed to a 7:7 tie. Then Tang Dynasty Combination, probably for stability, began to attack Zhen Jing continuously. The score reached 10:7 in one breath, holding three championship points and gaining a huge advantage.
On the last ball, Lin Zijun took the initiative to play tricks. After Tang Yuanyuan's explosive charge, he did not choose to respond normally, but directly lifted the ball to a height of more than two meters.
This was like a signal, and the four people in the field understood it immediately: Lin Zijun was admitting defeat and wanted to play the last ball.
Players often start playing table tennis at the last minute of a table tennis match, and this kind of thing usually happens more in Europe, because European players generally have more lively personalities and are less eager to win.
But Asian players can also play, and because their skills are more refined, they have a higher success rate. On the contrary, European players often fail.
Let's say that Lin Zijun picked the ball, Wang Chao followed suit, Zhen Jing and Tang Yuanyuan followed, and the four people walked around the table like a revolving door, spinning around, Tang Dynasty Combination followed Taiwan Island Combination exchanged directions and stood in front of each other's table, but the ball was still being played, and there was no mistake. However, because everyone was standing in front of the other side's table, when hitting the ball, they did not hit the ball directly to the opposite table, but instead hit the table in front of them first, and then flew over the net.
The details of this process are more complicated and readers need to practice it in person to understand it. In short, this is a very common gameplay in the table tennis world. No matter how the player turns, the ball is always correct. What is required is the player's own rhythm control and understanding ability. If it is a stupider player, he can directly fool himself.
Do you still remember how Geng Shuai was beaten out of a psychological barrier by Christian Hart seven years ago?
That year, Hart originally gave up. He took the initiative to pick up the ball and wanted to play with Geng Shuai, just like the scene today.
But when he picked the ball, he discovered the fatal weakness of Geng Shuai, and the situation was reversed.
At this moment, the audience all stood up with a smile and began to clap rhythmically. The originally serious and tense competition scene turned into a sea of joy at this moment.
After both players made a full circle around the table, Lin Zijun smiled and made a gesture to Wang Chao, signaling him to end the game.
So Wang Chao symbolically ended the last ball with a smash that was neither light nor heavy.
At 11:7, Tang Dynasty Combination won the third game, defeating Taiwan Island Combination with a score of 3:0, and won the first gold medal in the table tennis event of Olympic Games.
Needless to say about the subsequent interviews and awards, this gold medal was actually expected by the world table tennis community. In the end, although there were some surprises in the process, the result was reasonable, and the discussion aroused was not as much as expected.
Huaping won the championship and remained as low-key as ever.
Bay Island Table Tennis Association won the runner-up, and was so excited that it was continuously broadcast on the provincial news. Lin Zijun got a new title, called "Light of Formosa".
In China, foreign fans still go to the Silver Ball Dance website forum every day to ask: Will anchor Qin start broadcasting the next games?
After asking more questions, the Silver Ball Dance website had to make another announcement to inform everyone that Qin Huachang would not broadcast live during the entire Olympic period.
But only half a day later, a new announcement came out: If Sun Tianlong can reach the finals of Men's Singles, Anchor Qin will broadcast the game additionally.
Foreign fans cheered for this, because in their view, Sun Tianlong's entry into the finals should be a sure thing.
There is no situation where strong players will meet in advance, because China's current top three candidates Men's Singles have all reached extremely high positions in the world rankings. They will naturally become the seeds in different half regions in the group draw.
In fact, Qin Huachang begged for this game. Now he has let go of most of his worries, but if there is anything he has not let go of, it is the last tremor of Sun Tianlong's career.
After all, Sun Tianlong is the greatest achievement of his entire coaching career, and he also has the deepest personal affection among all his disciples. In a sense, his affection for Sun Tianlong is even deeper than that of Qin Zhenyu.
Similarly, Sun Tianlong has always vowed to provide for Qin Huachang until the end of his life, treating Qin Huachang as his other father.
Therefore, whether Sun Tianlong can get Double Grand Slam, Qin Huachang pays more attention to it than Sun Tianlong himself.
After all, he has a good reputation. He has been good for a lifetime. Jiang Shan is easy to change but hard to change. It is impossible to really let go completely.
"Double Grand Slam winner's master" is a title that he still can't really let go of even in his current situation.
He talked with his wife and son for a long time and finally convinced his family.
"I promise I won't get emotional."
"I swear, I just want to watch a good game, without any favoritism."
"I promise, if there is anything wrong with me at that time, you can just turn off the power and I won't complain at all."
"I promise that I can stay with you for at least 20 years, so don't worry."
With the end of the mixed doubles, Men's Doubles and Women's Doubles are on the agenda.
In fact, Olympic Games's table tennis items have changed many times in the past. Generally speaking, Men's Singles and Women's Singles must be included, while Men's Doubles and Women's Doubles have actually been constantly exchanged with the men's and women's teams.
For example, four years ago Olympic Games, there was no male Women's Doubles, only a male and female group.
But this exchange is not just about exchanging items, but also exchanging game schedules.
International Table Tennis Federation By default, the men's team and the women's team are the most valuable. After all, the victory or defeat of the group actually represents the victory or defeat of the entire association, and collective honor has always been more important than individual honor.
As for the mixed doubles, it is a forcibly added part of this year's special magic reform format.
Therefore, the specific order of Olympic Games table tennis events four years ago was as follows: Women's Singles, Men's Singles, women's team, and men's team.
This year's order is as follows: mixed doubles, Women's Doubles, Men's Doubles, Women's Singles, Men's Singles.
Did you see it? Essentially, they are arranged from low to high in terms of gold content and excitement.
There is another issue involved here, which is the singles preliminaries.
The preliminaries are similar to the qualifying rounds of the Open. The players are also quite tough. They have to compete in high-intensity continuous matches without live broadcast, and finally determine a number of main draw players.
Of course, it is impossible for Huaping to participate in this process. As for the players selected in the preliminary rounds, Huaping has no interest in studying them.
They are all cannon fodder, a bunch of noobs who don't even deserve a name.
When the mixed doubles is completely over, the preliminaries of Men's Singles are also completed simultaneously. Therefore, before Men's Doubles and Women's Doubles can officially proceed, an item that is very popular with fans around the world must be carried out: the singles event draws lots and determines the matchup table.
That afternoon, it was obviously just a draw ceremony, but the total number of people watching the live broadcast around the world was actually only 10% less than the number of people watching the mixed doubles final.
It can also be seen that the popularity of singles is much higher than that of doubles. No matter how International Table Tennis Federation tries to forcefully elevate the status of mixed doubles, the fans have their own confidence.
The current world ranking table was immediately displayed on the big screen.
1. Huaguo, Luo Jiu.
2. Huaguo, Wang Chao.
3. Brazil, Hook.
4. Huaguo, Sun Tianlong.
5. Huaguo, Xiao Fei.
6. Bay Island, Lin Zijun.
7. Huaguo, Lin Li.
8. Huaguo, Bai Feng.
9. Deutschland, Bayer.
10, Sweden, k. Michel.
11. Huaguo, Fan Xiaodong.
12. Sakura Country, Zhang Benkuang.
13. England, Pike.
14, Minato District, Weng Chunting.
15. Deutschland, Sissifield.
16. Kimchi Country, Zhu Shixian.
17, Huaguo, Lu Feiyang.
18. Nigeria, Arul.
19. Sakura Country, Mizutori Hato.
20, Belarus, Ochomirov.
21, Deutschland, Wolf.
22, Deutschland, Qiu Shang.
23, Sweden, Morad.
24, Kimchi Country, Li Zhengzhi.
25, Huaguo, Yan Ping'an.
26, Huaguo, Fang Xiaobo.
27, Huaguo, Zou Zhengyu.
28,...
29,...
30,...
Many fans felt slightly shocked.
Because when they saw the name Wang Chao, they had suddenly reached the 2nd place in the world rankings.
This put them in a trance.
Throughout the second half of the year, the events were too intensive, there were too many competitions, and Wang Chao's results were also too good. He continuously won championships in different events. He never lost any of the competitions he participated in. In the eyes of many viewers In my memory, I still remember the scene where Wang Chao ranked 9th in the world after German Open broke the record and won the championship in both lanes in July. But in the blink of an eye, Wang Chao was already ranked 2nd.
The most terrifying thing is that he, who is ranked second, is only ten points away from Luo Jiu, who is ranked first.
In other words, if Luo Jiu hadn't rushed to Portugal Open to gain momentum in front of World Table Tennis Championships and win the open championship, Wang Chao would have been the real World number one.
18-year-old World number one...
There are actually a lot of interesting things on this list.
For example, Sun Tianlong originally scored far ahead of everyone, but he didn't play for too long. According to International Table Tennis Federation's new scoring rules, most of his points were cleared, and now he actually fell to fourth place.
Although Hook did not win the championship this year, due to his stable status, he has won almost all competitions and participated in many competitions, so it is not surprising that he has reached this level.
Xiao Fei should have fallen out of the top ten, but he suddenly made a big splash during Malaysia Open and won the championship, thus stabilizing his ranking.
Fan Xiaodong is similar to Hook. Although there is no championship, there will be gains every time he participates, so he successfully reached the 11th place.
As for Zhang Benkuang and Lu Feiyang, it was purely a mistake. Taking advantage of the gap between World Table Tennis Championships and no one to participate in the open competition, they won the Men's Singles championship in Dubai Platinum leg at the end of October and Singapore leg in mid-November respectively., Speaking of which, these two are really lucky. To this day, Lin Zijun and Fan Xiaodong, who are much stronger than them, have not won the championship yet, but they have already won the title of World Champion - of course, many fans do not recognize the open championship, which is another story.
Besides, the young German player Qiu Shang also entered the ranking because he has frequently entered the main competition in the past year. As for Arul, who continuously defeated Qiu Shang, of course it is more logical to enter the ranking, and is ranked above Qiu Shang.
There are also some veterans, such as Mizutori Hato, Yan Ping'an, Fang Xiaobo, and Zou Zhengyu, who are basically unlikely to appear in the world arena in the future. Mizutori completely abandoned the Sakura Country Table Tennis Association, but the latter three have completely fallen behind in the cruel competition within the team. They will gradually be overwhelmed by the newly emerging young players, and now they are just lingering at the tail of the list.
Competitive sports come one after another, and the front wave is beaten to death by the more energetic back wave. It is not something that needs to be overly sad.
The organizer started the lottery grouping ceremony for Men's Singles. First, the seed seats were determined based on the world ranking. Luo Jiu entered the upper half, Wang Chao entered the lower half, then Hook entered the lower half, and Sun Tianlong entered the upper half.
After that, Huaping didn't pay much attention to the arrangement, because the coaches of Huaping had long known that Wang Chao and Luo Jiu would definitely be divided into the upper and lower halves, but there were several different sets of rules to choose from in subsequent groups. What they really wanted to know was who Sun Tianlong was placed in the same half.
Now they know that if Qin Huachang wants to commentate on Sun Tianlong's finals, then Sun Tianlong must first play a game with Luo Jiu.
Then the coaches probably paid attention to other people, such as Lin Zijun and Bayer in the lower half, Morad, Zhang Benkuang and Pike in the upper half. There is really no need to pay attention to the others.
The rest are all mediocre, and the heroes in the world are actually in their own hands.