Ping Pong Life

Chapter 451

One week after the start of the Olympic Games, the table tennis event was officially launched, and the first one to be played was naturally the mixed doubles event strongly promoted by the ITTF.

At the beginning, the ITTF insisted on putting mixed doubles in front of all events. In fact, it was to suppress Huaping, because they believed that mixed doubles was a new event.

Once the car is overturned, it will affect the confidence and morale, which will lead to accidents in Huaping's follow-up special projects.

But in fact, after the German Open in July, the ITTF knew that they had missed, because with the rise of Wang Chao and Tang Yuanyuan's special style of play, mixed doubles has become the least suspenseful advantage of Huaping.

At the World Table Tennis Championships at the end of September, Lin Zijun and Zhen Jing were reborn from the ashes, and the Wandao team shined brilliantly, which temporarily restored the confidence of the ITTF. However, Wang Chao first defeated Luo Jiu in a shocking battle. Then came to the mixed doubles final with the prestige of the men's singles champion. Even though Tang Yuanyuan's performance was average, he still carried a strong single player and defeated the Bay Island team with a big score of 4:1. The front completely lost its luster.

So far, mixed doubles has become tasteless, and the ITTF has no choice but to pinch its nose and agree that Huaping will win an extra gold medal this year.

But they have already discussed in advance that they must suppress mixed doubles from next year, and no matter what, they will never allow mixed doubles to go to the Olympic Games four years later.

There are only 16 groups of players in this mixed doubles event.

This also corresponds to what was said above, the bigger the competition, the stricter the quota review, because those weak teams and bottom players in the corners are not eligible to enter the highest-standard international competitions at all.

Therefore, an association with multiple combinations must first make an internal choice.

Huaguo is of course Wang Chao and Tang Yuanyuan, and the combination of Pluto (Wang Yu and Gao Mingyuan) and Feisha (Shen Sha and Lu Feiyang) has no possibility of grabbing power.

Sakura Country is very stalemate, Yichuan Mima and Nikubo Takaki defeated Zhang Benkuang and Hayata Hanna after an extremely difficult civil war, and won the Olympic places.

Bay Island is naturally Lin Zijun and Zhen Jing.

In the beautiful country, it is Lilith and Kazik.

Weng Chunting and Ai Qin were sent from the port area.

Deutschland sent Sisfeld and Solgar.

Kimchi Kingdom sent Zhu Shixian and Xu Jiaoyuan.

The Jindalai Country side is very interesting. When everyone thought it would be Che Songxin and Xian Youwen, they chose Jin Feng and Jin Zhong, who were obviously out of date.

Huaping smiled knowingly and expressed his understanding. After all, under the special system of the whole country system, seniority is inevitable. Due to the special national conditions of Jindal Country, this aspect may be more extreme.

In addition to the above eight groups, there are also eight groups of players from eight countries including England, France, Singapore, Peacock Country, Romania, Slovakia, Brazil, and Spain. It’s just because the team formation is relatively late, and most of the players are not well-known. So the outside world is generally not optimistic.

But there are also things worth mentioning. For example, in the combination of France, Singapore, and Spain, the female players are all of Chinese descent, and they are all retired players of the Huaping women's team.

This is also the overall status quo of women's table tennis in today's world table tennis.

Relatively speaking, women's table tennis is not as commercially valuable as men's table tennis, and the confrontation is not fierce enough, so it has not developed well in countries around the world, especially Europe and the United States. As long as you are willing to change your nationality, you will immediately become the main player of the national team.

For example, Grandma Ni from Luxembourg is a typical representative.

Another place worth mentioning is the Brazilian team's partners. The male player is the Brazilian light Hook.

Hook had no interest in mixed doubles at first, but he couldn't stand the soft-heartedness of the domestic table tennis association, so he found him a local female player he didn't know at the last moment as a partner. It started to run in urgently, and Hook didn't mind about it.

After all, he is so full of energy and physical strength that it is not necessary to play just one men's singles game, so it's okay to make some contributions to his country. The ball is round, maybe the opponent has a serious illness and chooses to retire that day?

What's more, there are only 16 groups of partners selected in total. As long as they participate in the competition, they will be in the top 16. If they accidentally pass a round, they will directly enter the top eight. The name of the Olympic top eight is quite bluffing.

The lottery is drawn before the game, and the rules are no longer listed in detail. In short, when the match list comes out, some are happy and some are sad.

The Bay Island team was divided into the upper half, and the Huaping team was divided into the lower half. This can be regarded as establishing the tone of the entire mixed doubles competition. If nothing else, it should be the finals of these two groups of players.

Subsequently, the Minato District, Sakura Country, and Kimchi Country were drawn into the lower half of the division to join Huaping.

The beautiful country group, the German group, and the Jindalai group were drawn into the upper half of the area, and they will face the big boss of the area, the Bay Island group.

Of the remaining eight combinations, the only one with a little bit of fighting power should be the Peacock Kingdom combination. After all, the Peacock Kingdom men's single brother Gananaka's recent international record is still good. 30 people.

In the end, the Peacock Country combination entered the lower half, while the temporary combination of the Brazilian team led by Hook entered the upper half.

From the next day, the fight started.

Compared with any other table tennis competition in the Olympic Games, in addition to the difference in scale and gold content, there is another most fundamental difference, that is, the schedule is long enough and the preparation time for the players is sufficient. After all, the entire Olympic Games will be held half a month.

Therefore, a mere top 16 mixed doubles team will play for three full days. All combinations can analyze their opponents in detail and come up with the most targeted tactics.

Well, the above is the ideal situation.

But in fact, under such a disparity in the strength of the world table tennis world, the so-called targeted research is really of little significance.

After all, if you give them a year to train coaches in many countries, they will not be able to target them, because their technical and professional level is really not strong, and no matter how good the strategy is, it will not be able to make up for the fundamental gap in hard power.

So on the first day, after playing 16 into 8, there were basically no accidents, and it was clear at a glance who should win and who should lose.

In the first half, the Bay Island team, the German team, and the Jindal team successfully advanced, while the Beautiful Country team was a little upset and lost to the Brazilian team led by Hooker.

The Brazilian Table Tennis Association is very excited, and Hook himself is also very excited, because he is really just here to play soy sauce, and the temporary running-in effect of the mixed doubles these days is also very poor. He and his female partner quarrel every day. Stepping on each other, he almost wanted to abstain.

But in the end, the beautiful country team made a serious mistake, and they successfully broke through, realizing the dream of "Olympic Mixed Doubles Quarterfinals".

The fighting in the second half was even more brutal.

First, Mima Yichuan and Takashi Nikubo of Sakura Country met Zhu Shixian and Xu Jiaoyuan of Kimchi Country, and eliminated the latter 3:1.

Don't be surprised by this score. According to regulations, the Olympic mixed doubles event is a best-of-five game system from beginning to end, which is different from the best-of-seven game system for singles.

Then Wang Chao and Tang Yuanyuan won the Hong Kong team Weng Chunting and Ai Qin, easily crushing 3:0.

These are two exciting games with little suspense but full intensity.

In the remaining two games, four rookies completed two peckings between rookies, and finally two rookies stood out, forming a clear pattern of two strong plus two weak in the lower half.

The amazing thing is that according to the matchup, the opponent of the Tang Dynasty team in the next round will be the Sakura Country team, that is to say, the two rookies will have to peck each other for another round, and the winner will enter the semi-finals. Sign up and lie down to win.

After the mixed doubles on the first day, Lin Zijun went directly to Wang Chao: "Can you practice in pairs?"

Wang Chao turned his head to look at Tangyuanyuan. Tangyuanyuan didn't even bother to take care of it. He just played with his mobile phone there, and the meaning was obvious: Isn't this kind of thing all up to you?

So Wang Chao nodded: "Of course."

Tang Yuanyuan raised her head at this time, and her eyes turned from the mobile phone screen in front of her to Wang Chao's face. She keenly felt that Wang Chao seemed to have some changes. This change had happened for several days. It happened in the village, but she couldn't tell exactly what it was.

All she knew was that with Wang Chao's character of not letting go of a rabbit, but before today, Wang Chao would definitely refuse Lin Zijun's request.

After all, Lin Zijun asked for joint practice because the Wandao team was going to play against the Jindal team in the next round. Lin Zijun had never met Jin Feng and Jin Zhong before, so he was under pressure.

But the Tang Dynasty team will fight the Sakura Kingdom team in the next round, and the opponent is a former defeated team. The Tang Dynasty team has no pressure at all. In this case, why did Wang Chao agree?

Did he forget that in the end Tang Dynasty and Wandao will have a battle?
……

That afternoon, Tang Chao Group and Wan Dao Group practiced very well. When Lin Zijun left, he was full of confidence, obviously feeling that he had learned a lot of new things.

Tang Yuanyuan asked Wang Chao in private: "Aren't you afraid that he will use what you taught him to deal with you?"

Wang Chao smiled: "Don't worry, even if he learns, he is not our opponent."

But Tang Yuanyuan refused: "But, it's not good for us."

Wang Chao glanced at him and asked her back: "Don't you think it's more fun to fight with stronger opponents?"

Tang Yuanyuan rolled her eyes and didn't want to talk anymore. She felt that there must be something bad in Wang Chao's stomach.

The mixed doubles rematch the next day, in the round of 8 to 4, Lin Zijun, who was instructed by Wang Chao, played better results, easily defeated Jin Feng and Jin Zhong 3:0, which made Lin Zijun heave a sigh of relief .

Although it is generally recognized in the world table tennis circles that the combination of young players from Jindale Country is stronger than the combination of veteran players, after all, the combination of veteran players officially sent by the Jindale Table Tennis Association, Lin Zijun has to wonder whether the Jindale Table Tennis Association has hidden What a big move.

But it turns out that there is no big move. The competitive state of the Jindalai team is almost exactly the same as Wang Chao guessed yesterday. This made Lin Zijun play very comfortably throughout the game. They were all simulated by Wang Chao yesterday.

So Lin Zijun sincerely waited for Wang Chao's game and cheered for Wang Chao. He had to see Wang Chao and Tang Yuanyuan beat the Sakura Kingdom with his own eyes to feel at ease.

After all, in last night's sparring, almost all Wang Chao was helping him find a way to deal with the Jindal team, which made Lin Zijun feel grateful in his heart, and deeply felt the sincere friendship of Wang Chao, a good friend.

An hour later, the Tang Dynasty team successfully defeated Yichuan Mima and Niwa Xiaoxi.

It's just that the game was not played smoothly, with a total score of 3:1. Although the Tang Dynasty team won, the effect of the game caused some doubts from the outside world.

"In the past, when we played seven rounds, we were crushed 4:0. Why did you play so hard this time?"

"I feel that Wang Chao's playing is not as rigorous as before, and some places are too arbitrary, as if he played directly without training."

"If it's a Tang Dynasty combination of this level, it may not be able to beat the current Bay Island combination."

"Is it Huaping who is setting off smoke bombs? No way, they have such a big advantage, and it will be hypocritical to deliberately show weakness."

After the game, the reporter interviewed Wang Chao and wanted to dig out some serious information from Wang Chao's mouth, but Wang Chao said full of official words: "Sakura Kingdom played very well, and they have always been one of the strongest opponents in our mind. We are very satisfied with our win today. As for the score, you don’t need to pay too much attention to it. After all, the level of mixed doubles is developing around the world. Over time, our advantage will definitely be further narrowed.”

These words made the bigwigs of the ITTF stunned, and they even wondered if there was a problem with their own cognition.

Is the level of mixed doubles all over the world really improving?
Is Huaping's mixed doubles advantage really decreasing?
If this is the case, maybe we don't have to rush to cancel the mixed doubles event next year?

Why don't you let the bullets fly for a while?

Only Lin Zijun felt guilty.

He believed that he must have practiced with Wang Chao yesterday, which affected Wang Chao's game state today.

After all, everyone is preparing for the battle, but Wang Chao has been simulating Jin Feng and Jin Zhong yesterday, so how can he have time to think about Yichuan Mima and Niwa Xiaoxi?

These are two completely different combinations.

I can only say... Wang Chao, show loyalty!
……

One morning passed, 8 into 4, and the Bay Island team and the German team remained in the upper half, and the Huaping team and the French team remained in the lower half. This is the mixed doubles semi-finals of this Olympic Games.

In a sense, the arrangement of the semi-finals is quite even, with two groups of Asian partners and two groups of European partners, which are just about evenly matched.

But if you look closely, you really have no eyes to see.

These two groups in Asia are the favorites to compete for the championship, while the two groups in Europe are full of fish, especially the French team. It can only be said that God blesses them to make it to the semi-finals, and they got a good lottery.

It is worth mentioning that the Brazilian team led by Hooker failed to continue their good fortune after all, and was defeated by the German players Sissfeld and Solga.

At that moment, the director's camera captured the fleeting pleasure on the face of off-court coach Rorskoff. It was originally a very subtle expression, but it was discussed by European fans because of the close-up of the big screen, which actually caused a lot of controversy. Po little war of words.

Many fans feel that Rorskoff has a small belly, because Hook rejected his guidance, and even refused to play in Germany, so he showed such a hateful expression when he saw Hook being eliminated.

There are also fans who think that Raulskov has always been expressive and is recognized as an old fox. I don’t know how many thoughts go through his mind every day. It is completely understandable that he is more expressive. You think he is thinking about Hook, but who? Do you know if he has already thought of another matter that is out of reach?He was happy, maybe it was just because he won the quarrel with his wife when he went out in the morning?

Of course, these are irrelevant gossip.

On the afternoon of the next day, that is, at 12:8 pm local time in Mexico on December 13, the mixed doubles semi-finals kicked off.

In the first half, the Bay Island combination vs the German combination.

In the second half, the Huaping team vs the French team.

Only half an hour later, the Bay Island team beat the German team 3-0, a slam without any suspense.

Half an hour later, the Tang Dynasty team beat the French team 3-0, which was also a suspenseful slap.

But please note that the French combination is actually much worse than the German combination.

So even though the Tang Dynasty team also completed zero seals, the fans still expressed a lot of dissatisfaction and doubts based on the specific content of the game.

"What happened to the Tang Dynasty combination?"

"Why does Wang Chao always give people a feeling of being absent-minded?"

"He's actually not bad at playing. He had a few good catches. I thought he was going to die, but he just saved it. I was curious, when did he run so fast?"

"If you want to put it that way, he also played a few offensive shots very scary. The strength of that board, if you don't look at the person, I thought it was Hook playing."

"But you have to admit that he really doesn't play well."

"Yes, it's not good. Although there are many bright spots, there are also many mistakes."

"He used to be known for his stability. Even in the final against Luo Jiu, with such a high intensity and such a terrifying opponent, he didn't show any flaws. But today, against the French team, he played so reluctantly."

"Fortunately, there is my sister Yuanyuan."

"Yes, fortunately, I have Da Yuanyuan, who can kill all men and women with one hand."

"Heaven didn't give birth to me glutinous rice balls, Wang Chao's mixed doubles are like a long night."

"Upstairs yours was exposed. Your IP address is in the Huaguo Athlete Camp in the Olympic Village. Tell me honestly, who are you?"

"I...I swear, I am definitely not Tang Yuanyuan herself."

"Okay, I'm actually Luo Jiu."

"Don't lie upstairs, your IP address shows that the area is at the Huaguo Female Athlete Camp."

"This this……"

　Thanks to "Looking at the Dust" for the reward of 500 coins.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)