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

Chapter 345 Studying the Opponent
The match against Simon Gauzy ended, and when I checked the time, less than twenty minutes had passed.

It's almost nine o'clock.

Wang Hao reached out and gently patted Chen Jin on the back: "You must be tired from today's match. Get some rest when you get home tonight."

"it is good."

Chen Jin nodded.

There are two games to play tomorrow.

His singles opponent was Ahn Jae-hyun from the South Korean team.

Their doubles opponents are the Swedish pair of Falk and Karlsson.

Both matches were tough battles.

And, just like today, there was a two-hour interval.

It requires extremely high physical fitness.

After a quick interview, I went to the lounge.

Take a bath and change clothes.

Together with Xie Mingyang, Zhang Jiahao, and Li Qian, they took a shuttle bus to the hotel.

The road was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations.

Although it was already the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival still lingered on the streets.

"It's a real shame that I didn't get to fry cow dung this Chinese New Year."

Zhang Jiahao rested his chin on his hand, gazing at the fleeting night view outside the car window, and couldn't help but sigh.

"Frying cow dung for Chinese New Year?"

Li Qian sighed, "What kind of custom is this?"

However, he was also quite emotional.

In previous years, the whole family would gather together on New Year's Eve to stay up late and watch the Spring Festival Gala, which was very lively.

But this year, I am in a foreign country.

Fortunately, communication is so advanced these days that we can still video chat with our families.

But, after all, they are separated by thousands of miles, so how can they compare to the real feeling of having someone by your side?
Back when he was in the second team, Li Qian was determined to become a coach for the first team.

Now that his wish has come true, he misses the carefree days he had in the second team.

Life is like a series of walled cities, constantly turning around and around.

Sometimes, even Li Qian couldn't imagine how the older generation of coaches managed to persevere for decades.

"Chen Jin".

Xie Mingyang suddenly spoke up, "Your two matches tomorrow seem to be very close again?"

"One game at 12:00, and the other at 2:20?"

Aside from his own schedule, his biggest concern is Chen Jin's matches.

Therefore, they knew it like the back of their hand.

"The schedule is similar to today's."

Chen Jin smiled calmly, "It's just that the opponent is a bit stronger."

"Only two hours of rest and warm-up training again?"

Li Qian frowned and couldn't help but complain, "This competition schedule..."

He swallowed back the second half of his complaint, but everyone understood what he meant.

Athletes are not machines; a two-hour interval is far too demanding for a high-intensity table tennis match.

But Chen Jin didn't take it seriously.

“Ahn Jae-hyun…”

Xie Mingyang said in a deep voice, "Although his performance has been average in recent years, his ability to defeat Liang Jingkun at the Asian Championships shows that his strength should not be underestimated."

At the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Ahn Jae-hyun, only nineteen years old, caused a series of upsets, made it to the semi-finals, won the bronze medal, and became famous overnight.

For the next five years, it remained lukewarm at best.

It wasn't until the Asian Championships, where he once again pulled off a stunning upset against Liang Jingkun, that he came back into the public eye.

"Ah."

Chen Jin nodded, "Ahn Jae-hyun's forehand is good, and it's more powerful than Jang Woo-jin's, but it's not very stable, like a wild card."

"I think that with your strength, Chen Jin, Ahn Jae-hyun is nothing to fear."

Li Qian looked somewhat serious. "In my opinion, the most worrying match tomorrow is the doubles."

"what?"

Zhang Jiahao turned around and said, "What's there to worry about in doubles? As long as Longmang doesn't come out, Jin Ge and I are invincible in doubles."

"Don't be too confident."

Li Qian asked, "Have you studied your doubles opponents for tomorrow?"

"Of course I've studied it."

Zhang Jiahao patted his chest and said, "It's just the Swedish team's Falk and Karlsson duo, what's there to be afraid of?"

"There's nothing to be afraid of?"

Li Qian sneered, "My opponents in the men's doubles at the Houston World Table Tennis Championships probably thought the same thing back then." Because the two of them teamed up and won the men's doubles gold medal at the Budapest World Table Tennis Championships.

This demonstrates the strength of this men's doubles pair.

But Zhang Jiahao remained unfazed: "Houston World Table Tennis Championships men's doubles champion? So what?"

"All gone."

"The truly remarkable figures are those of today."

His words were brimming with confidence.

"We still can't underestimate our opponent."

Chen Jin said seriously, "The individual strength of both Falk and Karlsson is quite good, especially Falk."

Falk is a right-handed barre player.

However, his rubber setup is somewhat unusual: short pips rubber on the forehand and inverted rubber on the backhand.

Such a playing style is extremely rare in today's table tennis world.

Especially in the male-oriented storyline.

Falk is 1.88 meters tall. His playing style combines the speed advantage of short pips rubber with a wide range of table protection capabilities, and his forehand is extremely powerful.

In addition, his backhand technique is in no way inferior to that of other European stars.

When combined with the forehand, it can enable a rapid and continuous offensive attack.

What's even more remarkable is that Falk also mastered the technique of flipping the plate.

In fast-paced rallies, one can skillfully switch blades, creating unpredictable speed and spin variations by alternating between forehand and backhand rubbers.

With this playing style, Falk won a silver medal in singles at the World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest.

Of course, with age and the challenge from younger players, Falk's performance and form in the last two or three years have not been very good.

In the singles competition at this Singapore Grand Slam, Falk had already fallen in the round of 32.

Upon hearing Chen Jin's words, Zhang Jiahao frowned, his gaze darkened, and his expression became more serious.

Back to the hotel.

The four of them went straight to the restaurant and had some late-night snacks.

Then, they each returned to their rooms.

Hsieh Ming-yang also has a tough battle to fight tomorrow against Kao Cheng-jui from the Taiwan Provincial Team.

After washing up, I lay down in bed.

Chen Jin held his phone, wearing headphones, watching replays of Ahn Jae-hyun's past matches.

"His forehand is powerful and his footwork is agile, but his shot selection is somewhat limited. His backhand rally is relatively weak..."

Chen Jin nodded to himself, "It's similar to Zhang Yuzhen's playing style."

"However, he has more drive than Zhang Yuzhen."

When he put down his phone and prepared to go to sleep.

A quick glance revealed Zhang Jiahao intently staring at his phone.

"What movie is so good that I was so engrossed in it?"

Chen Jin smiled and asked, "Mikami-sensei, or Itsukaichi-sensei?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jiahao looked up, ripped off his headphones, and grinned at Chen Jin: "It's neither Mikami-sensei nor Itsukaichi-sensei, but a Swedish teacher."

"Oh?"

Chen Jin laughed and said, "Changing your tastes?"

"You have to change things up every now and then, otherwise how can you keep things fresh?"

Zhang Jiahao blinked. "Four burly men, violently attacking each other... Brother Jin, are you interested in watching together?"

"burly chap?"

Chen Jin was skeptical. "When did you get into this kind of thing?"

The more he thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. "Give me your phone, let me see it."

Zhang Jiahao immediately got up, grabbed his phone, and with a leap, jumped heavily onto Chen Jin's bed.

boom!
It almost sent Chen Jin flying.

"Fuck!"

Chen Jin rolled his eyes. "Don't you know your own weight? Can't you be a little lighter?"

"hey-hey……"

Zhang Jiahao grinned and handed the phone to Chen Jin.

Upon closer inspection, I saw a video playing on the phone.

The main characters were indeed four burly men.

They exchanged fierce blows, and the scene became tense for a time.

Two of them were Falk and Karlsson.

The top left corner of the video prominently displays the title "2019 Budapest World Table Tennis Championships Men's Doubles Final".

(End of this chapter)