Zhang Jike or Xu Xin will Play Singles - Rio Olympics 2016!

SquareBall said:

It unfair to not get Fan Zhendong action in the biggest of all events... Also it could be unfair for the viewers because I think most people would prefer see Fan Zhendong rather than Zhang Jike a player who has shown hardly any passion for the sport lately.
It would be interesting if TTdaily had a Poll on who would be our favorite slot2 player for the Olympics from China !

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Why bother to have a poll here? Does ttdaily fan's opinion matter more than fan's in other social media platform? Actually, right now I have the results for three polls, all three polls favor ml/zjk pair for singles. Are you willing to accept the poll results?

1. Sina poll:6624 vote, ml/zjk 3051 (46%); ml/xx 2266 (34.2%); ml/fzd 1057 (16%)
2. Changjiao Dalianmeng poll: 218 vote, ml/zjk 178 (81.7%); ml/xx 18 (8.3%); ml/fzd 3 (1.4%)
3. Chinatt forum poll:54 vote, ml/zjk 37 (68.52%); ml/xx 12 (22.22%); ml/fzd 0 (0%)

Nothing is guarantee in life . Ask yourself this, right now at this very moment , who would u want to see ?an epic grudge match of all time ? Captain Ma Long vs Zhang Jike who is a reining Olympic Champion and ML is a reining World Champion who wants to destroys any opponent who stands in his path. As great as MA Long is ,he has never won gold in single event in the Olympic. "team he did" He has to proves he is the greatest of this modern table tennis with the new 40+ ball . It is will be his 1st single Olympic gold medal to added to his already very impressive accomplishments .So who will be the 2016 Olympic single gold medalist champion of Table tennis ???. Greatness awaits

It's up to LGL to decide and for sure he will take into account many factors. We fans can't see the whole picture, we do have our opinions but that doesn't mean that there is one opinion with axiomatic value or some other that is nonsense.

My prediction is that ZJK will take the second place for the singles event. In the WTTTC semi-final and final, FZD didn't participate, so I think that among CNT coaches he is considered to be behind XX and ZJK. Between ZJK and XX, I think ZJK will be chosen mainly cause he's more popular and the hype around his second Grand Slam and a probable final against ML will benefit more the sponsors, chinese table tennis and table tennis generally.

As for my personal preference, though I like XX and his gamestyle very much, I believe that in every competition the reighning champion should be given the chance to defend his/her title.

I think the less exepected is FZD, he is still very young and surely he will have his chances later on.
So we can only discuss XX and ZJK. Thinking about tough match I think ZJK is better choice, he plays really good when the price is high. He can be very competitive and ML is scared of him like noboby else. Ok I know that ML lost to XX few Times as well but I think he found out the way how to beat him when in neccessary need, the same as with FZD.
But there is oher thing, ZJK is really unpredictable and can loose even in first stage. XX is much more effective. Again he lost last time to CCY and had tough matches with Mizutani, but still he has the best ratio against foreign players.
So there is choice for LGL bring both silver and gold medals or risk for better attractiveness of the show. In my opinion he will choose XX.

sktrdie said:

This is kind of unfair to both ZFD and XX. When's the last time that Zhang Jike was n.1 or even n.2?

Also in 2012 he was n.3, and was chosen because the olympics rules that year accepted the top 2 ranked players from the earlier year (2011).

If you ask me, ZJK is very lucky, because if the same olympic rules were applied this year, he wouldn't get in the olympics.

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ranking does not matter at all. winning the title does. waldner won world champs without being no1. so did zhang jike. ruy seung min never reached no1 in his life and lost many times to lower ranked players, but he played extremely well when it mattered. even if he lost. jean michel saive was no1 for almost 2 years I think but he also failed to win olympics or world champs not even a world cup

Guys the picture was clear in the world team champs. LGL has never trusted youngsters especially after the 2004 failure. So for me its almost 100 % sure that ml zjk and xx will play in olympics. Maybe LGL will give XX a chance in singles but little fan is definitely out of the picture.

He also stated that the world champs trials were focused on ML and ZJK its like saying to everyone, I dont care what you think my best players are those two. Also the chinese fans and press didnt pay much respect to xx so probably he got pissed and won the trials lol

p.s. one more thing guys cause I see too much "hate" towards LGL. i

f LGL paid attention to the fans opinions the CNT most likely wouldnt be no1 country in singles and teams for the past 12 years.

In my opinion the 2nd player will be zhang jike as it was told by on the other posts .The reasons are obvious . zhang jike is experienced for big games like olympic and so on ... and also he is being loved by many fans all over china and world .

ping fun said:

In my opinion the 2nd player will be zhang jike as it was told by on the other posts .The reasons are obvious . zhang jike is experienced for big games like olympic and so on ... and also he is being loved by many fans all over china and world .

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I don't know... then why send ZJK and XX to the Asian cup final? It might've been a way for them to say "who wins, goes to the olympics singles"... I hope, because it would be XX's only chance of playing the olympics, unless he can keep it up until he's 30.

A bit sad that this thread went viral when it's only an assumption.
+ If China want to secure the gold and silver, I would not send ZJ. Ammong the top 4 he holds the greatest risk/odds of loosing.

Kaizoku said:

A bit sad that this thread went viral when it's only an assumption.
+ If China want to secure the gold and silver, I would not send ZJ. Among the top 4 he holds the greatest risk/odds of loosing.

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BUT zhang jika recovered in previous games and hasn't lost to foreign players ...actually he won over the players he lost B4 .But xu xin lost to a foreign player in hong kong .I guess zjk is a good choice but xx is good too .. well these are all our predictions ... No one knows indeed .....

ping fun said:

BUT zhang jika recovered in previous games and hasn't lost to foreign players ...actually he won over the players he lost B4 .But xu xin lost to a foreign player in hong kong .I guess zjk is a good choice but xx is good too .. well these are all our predictions ... No one knows indeed .....

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That's news to me tbh. I was wondering what happened to XX at the OL qualification. Forgot to check ittf page. However I can still not find any video on that match.. (where Chuang beat XX)
Do you know any place I might watch it?

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Let's FZD is kept out of it just because he's young and age is on his side.. What if he becomes injury-prone and is not able to have a long career.. I think denying an opportunity that he has earned is injustice. Not that the olympics is about finding about the best 3 or 4 TT players in the world anyway.

Kaizoku said:

That's news to me tbh. I was wondering what happened to XX at the OL qualification. Forgot to check ittf page. However I can still not find any video on that match.. (where Chuang beat XX)
Do you know any place I might watch it?

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Sorry;I havent found any video of xx & ccy . I really wanted to watch that game ....

The second single player is not decided yet. Here's a recent interview with Liu Guoliang http://tabletennista.com/2016/5/can-zhang-jike-play-in-the-2016-olympic-games/

It seems that both Zhang Jike and Xu Xin will be considered very closely. I hope Xu Xin gets a chance.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. Ma Long is an absolute must I think there is no doubt about that, Fan Zhendong not going I can understand due to how young he is (although I believe he deserves to go) so it's between Zhang Jike and Xu Xin. Zhang Jike may be the current Olympic champion, but he has faltered over the past couple of years and Xu Xin has really come along nicely.

Xu Xin is ranked higher than Zhang Jike and if you put the two players up against one another, Xu would probably win the majority of the matches on current form. For me China should take Ma Long and Xu Xin with Zhang Jike being the doubles player in the team event.

For me beyond the moral and ethical things Ma long and Zhang Jike would be the best match up to a Olympics final. If they send xx the gold medal will be much more predictable because I don't see ml losing to xx

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yuri.saldon said:

For me beyond the moral and ethical things Ma long and Zhang Jike would be the best match up to a Olympics final. If they send xx the gold medal will be much more predictable because I don't see ml losing to xx

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Xu Xin has a stunning 27,27% odds chance to win Based on ITTF head to head.

Kaizoku said:

Xu Xin has a stunning 27,27% odds chance to win Based on ITTF head to head.

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statistics dont matter besides every match is different. In their best days ML is just too strong for XX . both ml and zjk just play in his bh or middle bh and move him around till winning the point, a strategy also followed by little fan

XX strong appearance in doubles may also be his undoing. Sadly, ZJK doesn't need to be better at singles than XX, just suck more than XX at doubles.

I haven't had a chance to really follow the three, but my take so far is that XX and ML have really come a long way, ZJK has mostly stagnated IMHO, and I don't think he should be rewarded for that.

Also, XX just seams to have a better track record against non Chinese players (downright brutal), where as ZJK has had more upsets (again, this is my perception, as I haven't had a chance to follow them closely).

Finally, their ability to beat each other is irrelevant, as the objective is to secure team medals. (Whether ML gets gold or XX gets gold is irrelevant as long as China brings home the gold.)

@fais : you cannot have an honest opinion unless you have been following them recently . I am not taking a side on who should be selected but the fact of the matter is recently Xu Xin messed it up by losing foreigners in the olympic qualifiers. I know ZJK lost recently too but that was against Dima who he beat in the tournament before. LGL's analysis is that ZJK lost because he was over confident and he even said that right after the match not just now to justify the selection. Regarding ZJK's stagnation , I agree he had stagnated but not in recent times , it was in the period before an year back and LGL had said so as well.
Recently he has added much more variety to his serve receive , doing really good pushes and flicks off the forehand.

Again , I don't think ZJK has been selected for the olympics , its yet to be finalized.

ZJK does have more upsets against foreigners and the coaches accept that, but the coaching team thinks that he is a not the same player mentally as the other two. They think unless ZJK is under pressure he really does not focus. The only think he really had to prove was that he could play non-stop this year and make sure that he shows that he can withstand the pressure physically and not lose to lower ranked players.

Also , there is the prospect of winning two grand slams, with ZJK and ML its a win win situation , if ZJK wins he wins two grand slams , if ML wins he wins his first grand slam. With Xu Xin , there is a win lose scenario where where if Xu Xin wins, ML does not get the grand slam. So I think , the coaching stuff prefers the win win situation, they don't believe anybody in the world other than ZJK can beat ML in a major tournament . They know the gold is already theirs , its just history they are after ...

fais said:

XX strong appearance in doubles may also be his undoing. Sadly, ZJK doesn't need to be better at singles than XX, just suck more than XX at doubles.

I haven't had a chance to really follow the three, but my take so far is that XX and ML have really come a long way, ZJK has mostly stagnated IMHO, and I don't think he should be rewarded for that.

Also, XX just seams to have a better track record against non Chinese players (downright brutal), where as ZJK has had more upsets (again, this is my perception, as I haven't had a chance to follow them closely).

Finally, their ability to beat each other is irrelevant, as the objective is to secure team medals. (Whether ML gets gold or XX gets gold is irrelevant as long as China brings home the gold.)

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