Table tennis: Swinging the racket billions of times, achieving a grand slam

Chapter 215: Too Strong... I'm talking about Chen Jin

The overall score is 2:3.

Xie Mingyang lost to Felix and failed to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2024 WTT Montpellier Championship.

After five fierce rounds, each round was won or lost by a difference of two points.

Everyone who watched this game found it to be thrilling and exciting and talked about it with great relish.

As a newcomer to the national table tennis team, he fought fiercely with Felix, who was ranked seventh in the world.

With such strength and courage, the future is promising. It is an honor to lose.

Besides, Xie Mingyang is a few years younger than Felix.

As long as he keeps up the momentum and accumulates more competition experience, he may be able to defeat or even surpass Felix.

"This batch of new players is so strong. Is there really hope for our national table tennis team to build a strong team?"

"Xie Mingyang seems to be the same as Chen Jin, both of them made it through the selection competition."

"First doubt, then believe... One game doesn't reveal too much. I hope JLZ can give Xie Mingyang more opportunities to compete and let him prove himself."

"The match between Xie Mingyang and Felix was really exciting. It made me nervous and the match was full of climaxes."

"Finally, another young player has come forward."

"I wonder if Xie Mingyang can defeat my thirty-two-strong leader?"

……

When the game ended, it was already four o'clock in the morning in China.

However, there are many night owls who practice Taoism online.

Day and night.

The key point is that all the black fans have already fallen asleep at this time.

There is a lot less bullshit.

Those who can stay up till this late to watch the game are almost all true table tennis fans.

Therefore, most of the discussions are about the game.

Speak more rationally.

Seeing Xie Mingyang sweating profusely, with wet hair and an expressionless face, Li Qian felt inexplicably distressed.

He reached out to pat Xie Mingyang's shoulder to comfort him.

But it can be extended halfway and then retracted.

"Felix, ranked seventh in the world."

Li Qian said, "You were able to fight like this in your first match against him. I believe Coach Wang saw it."

He had heard about the "quarterfinals meeting" between Wang Hao and Xie Mingyang a long time ago.

Now, Xie Mingyang fell in the round of 16 and failed to fulfill the agreement between the two.

The blow to Xie Mingyang can be imagined.

"too strong……"

Xie Mingyang muttered to himself, as if he didn't hear Li Qian's words at all.

"what?"

Li Qian's heart skipped a beat.

It's over!

There's something wrong with Xie Mingyang's condition!
Could it be that because he lost to Felix, he couldn't keep his mentality and something went wrong?

Think of this.

Li Qian secretly thought that this was not good.

As Xie Mingyang's head coach, he might have let such a promising young player fail in his hands.

"Victory and defeat are common in the military. He's just Felix. You..."

Li Qian said hurriedly.

But he hadn't finished speaking yet.

But he was interrupted by Xie Mingyang.

"No!"

Xie Mingyang shook his head, "I'm talking about Chen Jin."

"what?"

Li Qian was a little dumbfounded.

Hey, the opponent you just lost to was Felix, not Chen Jin!
"Chen Jin imitated Felix's playing style, and we played a few games."

Xie Mingyang raised his eyebrows, "In each game, I can only win Chen Jin by five points at most."

The implication couldn't be more obvious.

Both his matches with Felix ended with a two-point difference.

But when competing with Chen Jin, let alone winning a small game, even winning by six small points in each game is as difficult as climbing to the sky.

Comparing the two, a judgment is made.

"Uh……"

Li Qian said, "Maybe it's because the mentality is different between training and real competition."

Many times, during training and competition, neither side will give their best.

However, on the field, you even have to fight for your life.

"no the same."

Xie Mingyang said seriously, "In fact, my condition is better."

After all, in training competitions, there is no psychological pressure like in real competitions.

Fighting makes you feel more liberated.

more importantly.

No one knew better than him how much he wanted to defeat Chen Jin once.

Even if it's just a training match!
Once they fight, Xie Mingyang will definitely try his best to push his condition and strength to the limit.

Even so, he still couldn't defeat Chen Jin.

This match with Felix.

In terms of hard power, there is an obvious gap between Xie Mingyang and Felix.

But, he was able to fight back.

The greatest credit goes to Chen Jin and his sparring partner.

What made Xie Mingyang feel incredible was that Chen Jin's simulation of Felix's playing style, including serve, techniques and tactics, and even the way of thinking and habitual details of reading the game, was all very lifelike.

To know.

In the S Province team, Felix was not as famous as he is now.

Coach Wu had already seen his potential.

Together with Chen Jin, I carefully studied Felix's playing style.

Later, Chen Jin watched every game of Felix carefully, frame by frame, and analyzed and summarized it.

Naturally, he knew Felix very well.

Xie Mingyang even felt that if Felix could imitate the playing style of Chen Jin, his strength might be able to be improved to a higher level.

Pack your things.

Xie Mingyang and Li Qian left the stadium.

As soon as I reached the exit, I saw Wang Hao, Chen Jin and Lin Shidong who had been waiting for a long time from afar.

"I watched the game."

Wang Hao encouraged, "Although you lost, you played well and have a bright future."

A word is worth a thousand words.

In the new Olympic cycle, the most important thing for the Chinese national table tennis team is team building.

With Ma Long's gradual withdrawal and Fan Zhendong's rest, only Wang Chuqin was left among the three absolute main forces.

As for Wang Chuqin, who won zero in the three major competitions, to put it nicely, he is just an uncrowned king.

Moreover, the state is extremely unstable.

The upper limit is high and the lower limit is low.

Once something goes wrong, someone has to clean up the mess.

At the beginning, Lin Shidong was undoubtedly the absolute main candidate that the coaching staff valued most.

But Chen Jin suddenly rose up and kicked Lin Shidong down with one kick.

According to Wang Hao's current plan, the three absolute main players for the Los Angeles Olympics are none other than Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin and Chen Jin.

Of course, having three absolute main forces alone is still not enough.

According to the tradition of the Chinese national table tennis team, there must be at least five main players who are trained with emphasis.

Only in this way can healthy competition be formed within the team.

In addition, we must look further ahead and focus on future echelon building.

It is unknown whether the team's main players such as Xiang Peng, Xue Fei and Xu Yingbin can stand out during the Los Angeles Olympic cycle.

They are of the same age as Tomokazu Harimoto.

At best, we can only hold out until Los Angeles.

After all, not everyone is Ma Taki.

After the Los Angeles Olympics, it became the stage for athletes like Xie Mingyang.

Echelon construction cannot be done now.

There must be at least three generations, old, middle and new, competing and gaining experience together.

"If you lose, you lose. There is nothing to say."

Xie Mingyang said, "However, if I meet Felix again next time, I will definitely be able to defeat him."

It seemed that he was speaking to Wang Hao.

But he couldn't help but glance at Chen Jin from the corner of his eye. "Okay, I'll wait and see."

Wang Hao smiled and said, "There will be another match of Liang Jingkun later, do you want to watch it?"

"I want to see."

Chen Jin raised his hand.

After all, he and Liang Jingkun are in the same 4/4 zone.

We might meet in the quarterfinals.

It is never a bad thing to observe the status of potential opponents in advance.

"I'll take a shower first and change my clothes."

Xie Mingyang said immediately.

After that, he had no more competitions and became just Chen Jin's sparring partner. Naturally, he had to follow Chen Jin's lead in everything.

Immediately, everyone made an appointment to go watch Liang Jingkun's game together.

Liang Jingkun's opponent is Hayasuke Togami of the Neon team.

After the Tokyo Olympics, a number of Japanese veterans such as Mizutani Jun and Niwama retired, and Togami Hayabusa gradually became the second-in-command of the Japanese men's table tennis team.

Second only to Tomokazu Harimoto.

The world ranking is 19th.

As the famous internal war king of the Neon Team, Hayasuke Togami spends 365 days a year studying and preparing for the match against Tomokazu Harimoto, trying to become the "No. 1 in Neon."

It’s a pity that Togami Hayabusa’s performance in foreign wars was not ideal, and he was once known as the "Little Wang Chu Qin".

Before this, Liang Jingkun and Togami Hayabusa had faced each other twice, and Liang Jingkun won both times.

No one knows who will win this time.

"I hope Liang Jingkun can play more steadily in this game."

Wang Hao sighed, "Don't let Zhiqiang suffer anymore."

Looking at Liu Zhiqiang's increasing number of white hairs, most of them are contributed by Liang Jingkun.

Li Qian felt the same way.

After receiving several off-court coaching sessions from Xie Mingyang since the last Grand Slam, he went home and looked in the mirror and discovered that he had a few more grey hairs.

"It would be great if all the players I manage could be like Chen Jin."

Li Qian couldn't help but secretly glance at Chen Jin, "No, I am Chen Jin's head coach now."

"It's a pity that it's only in name."

Ever since the Lima Regular Challenge, he has never enjoyed the treatment of being Chen Jin's off-court coach.

Nowadays, although his name is Chen Jin, he always feels like he is raising someone else's child.

No matter how outstanding your child is, he or she is not your own!
But you still have to live in your own home, eat your own food, and use your own things!
Damn it, why do I feel more and more aggrieved the more I think about it?

Li Qian couldn't help but glance at Wang Hao.

"Ok?"

Feeling a gaze full of resentment, Wang Hao turned his head to look.

Li Qian was so frightened that he quickly looked at his nose and pretended to watch the game seriously.

"nice shot!"

Li Qian slapped his thigh and cheered loudly, "Wow, this shot was so brilliant."

"Coach Li, are you okay?"

Wang Hao glared and said, "Isn't this a pre-match practice?"

"Ahem... the pre-match practice session was already so exciting. The game to come will only be more exciting."

Li Qian quickly made up for it.

Wang Hao: "..."

One is ranked fourth in the world and the other is ranked nineteenth in the world.

Togami Hayasuke knows that there is a clear gap between his own hard power and Liang Jingkun's.

Therefore, he had no other choice for his tactical style of play.

The only option is to fight desperately.

Fight hard, maybe there is still a chance of survival.

If they show weakness, their army will inevitably be defeated.

As soon as the game started, Hayato Togami opened the way with a long ball and then exploded with his backhand.

The offense was particularly aggressive.

At the beginning, he directly hit Liang Jingkun 4:0.

For the second ball, he collided with Liang Jingkun with a forehand and won it with great momentum.

See this.

Coach Zhiqiang, who was sitting outside the court, had a slightly changed expression, and was visibly nervous: "God, you are not going to mess with my mentality again this time, are you?"

"Where's my quick-acting heart pill?"

Fortunately, this time, Liang Jingkun learned from the lessons of the previous game. He stabilized the rhythm of the game, changed the landing point of the serve, and restricted Hayato Hayato's ability to get started.

In addition, I gradually adapted to Togami Hayabusa's playing style.

When falling behind in the score, we fought back.

Although in the end, there was nothing that could be done to save the situation.

Togami Hayabusa won the first game with a score of 12:10.

However, Liang Jingkun has also regained some of his form.

"how?"

After watching the first game, Xie Mingyang turned his head and looked at Chen Jin beside him.

"The pace and attack were not as aggressive as in the first half of the Incheon Championship."

Chen Jin frowned slightly.

At the Incheon Championships, Liang Jingkun defeated Simon Gauze, Anton and Ma Taki all the way to the finals, where he defeated Hugo and won the championship.

That state and that strength fully illustrate what it means to be the "God of the Decisive Game".

however.

Since the Paris Olympics, Liang Jingkun's condition has obviously declined a lot.

The Macau Championship, BJ Grand Slam, Asian Championships...all ended in upsets and early eliminations.

His recent performance is obviously not equal to his world ranking.

"It's really not good."

Xie Mingyang nodded.

He once played against Liang Jingkun in the Grand Slam.

Liang Jingkun was much more active at that time than he is now.

If Liang Jingkun was in the same condition as he is today during the Grand Slam.

Not to mention Chen Jin, even Xie Mingyang was confident that he could defeat him.

"Did he know you were watching his game and deliberately show weakness to paralyze you?"

Xie Mingyang guessed.

"Not too possible."

Chen Jin shook his head.

Just like what Liu Guoliang said about Liang Jingkun, below the neck, he has the equipment for a Grand Slam.

If Liang Jingkun really had such a brain, how could Wang Chuqin have had the chance to take the position?
After listening to Chen Jin’s explanation.

Xie Mingyang nodded: "That's true."

"What's going on with Liang Jingkun's recent state?"

Wang Hao couldn't help but frown.

As a P card holder for the Paris Olympics, Liang Jingkun's performance during the Paris Olympics was remarkable.

Especially in the first half of the year, we won the Incheon Championship and Taiyuan Regular Challenge.

But in recent games, he has been in poor form.

It is really worrying.

Now, Ma Long and Fan Zhendong have withdrawn from the competition, and the young players have not yet risen.

The Chinese national table tennis team still needs veteran players like Liang Jingkun and Lin Gaoyuan to hold the team together and stabilize morale.

However, the two of them behaved like brothers in distress.

"It won't work if we continue like this."

Wang Hao frowned even more tightly, "In this situation, it is better to give the opportunity to the young player..."

"How about the Frankfurt Championship, or let Xie Mingyang give it a try?"

In this way, we can not only train potential newcomers, but also serve as a wake-up call to Liang Jingkun.

In the case of losing the first game.

In the subsequent games, Liang Jingkun gradually regained his form after fighting frantically with his colleague Shang Shunfu.

11: 9.

12: 10.

11: 6.

In one breath, three cities were captured.

In the end, he defeated Togami Hayasuke with a score of 3:1 and advanced to the quarterfinals.

"The next game will most likely be a civil war."

Wang Hao glanced at Chen Jin, "Zhiqiang can finally breathe a sigh of relief."

(End of this chapter)