Zhang Jike & Timo Boll Knocked Out of Korea Open 2016!

TableTennisDaily · Jun 24, 2016

The opening round of the main draw at the Korean Open took place today with two major upsets. In the bottom half of the draw China's Zhang Jike played Chen Chien An of Chinese Taipei in a nail biting 7 set thriller. In the top half of the draw Germany's Timo Boll clashed against inform Tristan Flore of France. Tristan in devastating form eliminating Boll in 5 sets.

Zhang Jike 3-4 Chen Chien (11-5,11-7,6-11,11-9,8-11,9-11,15-13)
Timo Boll 1-4 Tristan Flore (16-14,11-4,10-12,12-10,11-7)

Have China made a mistake choosing Zhang Jike for Rio Olympics 2016?

Video via ITTF

Tom TTD · Jun 24, 2016

Wow! Those are amazing wins for Flore and Chen Chien An !

wcmaness · Jun 24, 2016

Does anyone have a link to the matches above? I can't find it on the ittf tv site. Thanks.

sktrdie · Jun 24, 2016

A loss will not change the fact that Zhang Jike will attend the Olympics this year. He's the only one in the China team with 2 world champions under his belt. He might not be in the best form this year, but he still performs best at big events.

AndySmith · Jun 24, 2016

sktrdie said:
A loss will not change the fact that Zhang Jike will attend the Olympics this year. He's the only one in the China team with 2 world champions under his belt. He might not be in the best form this year, but he still performs best at big events.

Yes, he still performs at big events...right up until the wheels fall off and he doesn't. Did ZJK ever go into any of these big events off the back of such poor form? Or with these injury worries hanging over him? Past performance isn't a guarantee of future success, just an indicator. Objectively, he represents the biggest risk of the top four CNT players to lose to a non-CNT player. That risk might still be reasonably low, but it's still there and Korea just highlights that.

He should still easily be good enough to get to the final at Rio of course. The CNT have the luxury of selecting between 4 players who are simply better than any other in the world, which is how they can afford to mitigate the slightly higher risk of sending ZJK against the potential history making feats he could perform. And even if he suffers a shock early defeat, ML should still win the whole thing so it's not a total disaster for China.

Tom TTD · Jun 24, 2016

wcmaness said:
Does anyone have a link to the matches above? I can't find it on the ittf tv site. Thanks.

Live Streaming

Mikael Berglund · Jun 24, 2016

I think we can safely assure that the CNT has been practicing really, really hard up to these two tournaments. It is to be expected that the Chinese players are run-down and needs some rest in order to bounce back up in top shape for the Olympics. They want to have maximum supercompensation. Expect them to be lightning fast at the Olympics.

Archosaurus · Jun 24, 2016

All I know is, when ZJK is in form, he's in damn good form. Maybe we will see something great, maybe not.

Siva Schopenhauer · Jun 24, 2016

ZJK is the most controversial player because of his bad losses. Psychologically, speaking he likes to loss to relieve pressure on him. He is being doing this from time immemorial. What other players don't have is immense mental strength. Ma long is the highest order technical player. But, at most important moments, he crumbled. Then Xu xin, has never won any world championships. Fan is relatively young, though he is a bad muthafacka. If ZJK should be replaced FAn would be the choice. But, Fan is only 19. In TT world, that is relatively young right for RIO

UpSideDownCarl · Jun 24, 2016

This ZJK loss seems very in line with some of ZJK's issues throughout his career. In 2011, leading up to the WTTC, LGL was having his coaches work on getting him to start his matches better because there were so many matches where he was down 2-0 and 3-1 before he woke up, started playing and stole the match. It looks like this match with CCA falls right into that pattern except, CCA didn't fold and actually came through in spite of the fact that it went to deuce in the 7th.

As far as I'm concerned, it would be interesting to see some upsets when the Olympics come around. But I am not going to bet on them happening.

Sent from Deep Space by Abacus

NextLevel · Jun 24, 2016

UpSideDownCarl said:
This ZJK loss seems very in line with some of ZJK's issues throughout his career. In 2011, leading up to the WTTC, LGL was having his coaches work on getting him to start his matches better because there were so many matches where he was down 2-0 and 3-1 before he woke up, started playing and stole the match. It looks like this match with CCA falls right into that pattern except, CCA didn't fold and actually came through in spite of the fact that it went to deuce in the 7th.

As far as I'm concerned, it would be interesting to see some upsets when the Olympics come around. But I am not going to bet on them happening.

Sent from Deep Space by Abacus

ZJK went down 0-2 and 1-3. Could have lost games 3 and 5 and 6. Was actually up in the 7th significantly so credit CCA for hanging in there.

The boredom factor is obvious. I just hope for CNT's sake that the diagnosis is 100% right.

TTFrenzy · Jun 24, 2016

Spoiler alert : Wang Xi now plays for germany! I guess he got his citizenship papers recently its the first time I see him in a world tour

NextLevel · Jun 24, 2016

TTFrenzy said:
Spoiler alert : Wang Xi now plays for germany! I guess he got his citizenship papers recently its the first time I see him in a world tour

This is actually his third World Tour I remember - he was at the German Open and I believe also at the Japan Open.

dio_hgw · Jun 24, 2016

I totally agree! I believe CNT players chosen for the Rio singles event are on a special training program scheduled to deliver on September. I don't think it's random that all four (Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Li Xiaoxia, Ding Ning) lost to their compatriots during the recent Japan Open.

Mikael Berglund said:
I think we can safely assure that the CNT has been practicing really, really hard up to these two tournaments. It is to be expected that the Chinese players are run-down and needs some rest in order to bounce back up in top shape for the Olympics. They want to have maximum supercompensation. Expect them to be lightning fast at the Olympics.

dio_hgw · Jun 24, 2016

Of course, ZJK's best days are over. But LGL still trusts him and he knows best. Or maybe the whole point around ZJK's participation is the hype around his second Grand Slam, a possible ZJK-ML final and him stepping up (or not) to success again.

pingpongdingdong · Jun 24, 2016

I really don't think the concern with Liu Guoliang is going to be winning the Olympics. It's basically already set in stone that a Chinese player will win and it will probably be Ma Long. He just has to pick between Xu Xin and Zhang Jike. Fan Zhendong is too young and is widely agreed to be the next world number 1, Olympic gold medallist, world champion etc. It's a matter of choosing between Xu Xin and Zhang Jike because this is probably their last shot at the Olympics before they either retire or get taken over by other players. You got to feel sorry for Liu Guoliang to be put in such a position, considering that I'm sure he is close with both of them.

But they're going to be smart with it. Either way, if Zhang Jike wins, we have a double grand slam winner. If Ma Long wins, we have a grand slam winner. History is going to be made. If Zhang Jike loses before the final, it won't be that much of a surprise and they will still have Ma Long and an almost guaranteed Olympic gold medal. I can't see Ma Long losing, and Zhang Jike losing isn't that likely either. Using Xu Xin just wouldn't give CNT any new records or chances to make history. It would also be very exciting to see them both play it out, considering both Ma Long and Zhang Jike are well known rivals and people would surely get excited. They both have performed well at big events and have had great results.

Xu Xin had his time.

Also gotta consider the whole Xu Xin showman business. Don't want him to screw up.

JesperStef · Jun 25, 2016

Just found these great videos of the Chen vs Zhang match on youtube

Nico269 · Jun 25, 2016

This was expected. Didn't you people see the first two sets of the Japan Open against Fan Zhendong. They are just testing certain aspects of ZJK's game. He will win in Rio. This is not ZJK playing, this is China, that will win. All others will be vanquished in Rio.

Baal · Jun 25, 2016

Mikael Berglund said:
I think we can safely assure that the CNT has been practicing really, really hard up to these two tournaments. It is to be expected that the Chinese players are run-down and needs some rest in order to bounce back up in top shape for the Olympics. They want to have maximum supercompensation. Expect them to be lightning fast at the Olympics.

That is the optimistic interpretation from CNT perspective.

Baal · Jun 25, 2016

pingpongdingdong said:
I really don't think the concern with Liu Guoliang is going to be winning the Olympics. It's basically already set in stone that a Chinese player will win and it will probably be Ma Long. He just has to pick between Xu Xin and Zhang Jike. Fan Zhendong is too young and is widely agreed to be the next world number 1, Olympic gold medallist, world champion etc. It's a matter of choosing between Xu Xin and Zhang Jike because this is probably their last shot at the Olympics before they either retire or get taken over by other players. You got to feel sorry for Liu Guoliang to be put in such a position, considering that I'm sure he is close with both of them.

But they're going to be smart with it. Either way, if Zhang Jike wins, we have a double grand slam winner. If Ma Long wins, we have a grand slam winner. History is going to be made. If Zhang Jike loses before the final, it won't be that much of a surprise and they will still have Ma Long and an almost guaranteed Olympic gold medal. I can't see Ma Long losing, and Zhang Jike losing isn't that likely either. Using Xu Xin just wouldn't give CNT any new records or chances to make history. It would also be very exciting to see them both play it out, considering both Ma Long and Zhang Jike are well known rivals and people would surely get excited. They both have performed well at big events and have had great results.

Xu Xin had his time.

Also gotta consider the whole Xu Xin showman business. Don't want him to screw up.

It's the way I would have calculated it if I was LGL.

Zhang Jike & Timo Boll Knocked Out of Korea Open 2016!

Have China made a mistake choosing Zhang Jike for Rio Olympics 2016?

Yes! Should have been Xu Xin or Fan Zhendong

No he will bounce back!

Zhang Jike's days are over!

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