Zhang Jike Olympic Gold Medalist

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Well its fair to give Zhang the credit for a brilliant performance and winning gold but ultimately we all know that we were robbed from the match of the decade between Long and Jike........and we all know how that would have turned out in our minds, one could actually see the dissapointment in Ma Long's eyes as he watched the match.

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Gold medalist Zhang Jike of China (C), silver medalist Wang Hao of China (L) and bronze medalist Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany attend victory ceremony of men's table tennis singles competition, at London 2012 Olympic Games in London, Britain, on August 2, 2012. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo)

Zhang Jike - Gold Medal Ceremony - Men's Table Tennis Singles Final - London 2012 Olympics

 
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Excuse me but are you inside ma longs mind and know all that ? I mean he knew a year ago that he probably wont participate (besides i saw him laughing during the whole match together with ma lin and guoliang...where did you see the disapointment?) , certainly ma long is better than wang hao in 2011-2012 season but he has proven himself inadequate for big situations . He had 4 chances to win a big tournament (2 world cups and 2 world championships) everybody expected him to win and be great but he failed 4 times . He just isnt mentally strong yet , personally i hope the chinese coaches will help him solve his mental problems so we can see him win a big tournament after a great final with zhang jike as an opponent ! Besides he is young enough to participate in the next 2 olympiads

Till then zhang jike is from today the only player in table tennis history that has achieved to be world champion , olympics winner and world cup winner in consecutive tournaments in a period of 1 year and 2 months only ! He "broke" the tradition that wanted the current world champion , not to win the olympics.In my eyes he is the first chinese that doesnt hesitate or break mentally in difficult and crucial moments , even when he plays bad he manages to get the needed result . Thats the reason that liu guoliang selected him to play against boll in dortmund . If he selected ma long who is mentally weak , he may put the championship in great risk
 
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I will find you. And I will kill you.

No seriously, I've read in many places that Ma Long this Ma Long that. Ma Long didn't even make it and he had plenty of chances. Zhang Jike is king atm, and has been since the last world championship.
 
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I will find you. And I will kill you.

No seriously, I've read in many places that Ma Long this Ma Long that. Ma Long didn't even make it and he had plenty of chances. Zhang Jike is king atm, and has been since the last world championship.

my point exactly ! great players can bring great results ! pro tours are just for money , im also tired of reading about ma long and how great he "will be" or "can be " in the future ...now is the future and ma long has failed to his expectations . I hope ma long will become great becauze ZJK has no opponent right now when it comes to big matches.
 
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I think even in a finale between zhang and ma long ... zhang would be the winner, because of his mental power. and ma long had his chances to join the olympic single, but he was injured when the seeding list was made. bad luck. and liu wanted wang hao to win the olympics ... thats all. next tournement zhang will face ma long and will go down ;) thats the history of table tennis ... the greatest player of major tournements just won his titles, because the very best player was not in the tournements :D
 
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Don't forget Xu Xin guys....he's gonna be up there, and I think he'll give both of them a run for their money. Like I said before, and I'll say it again, he'll be the no 1 soon. ZJK is the man for big events, but Xu Xin has yet to get his fair chance yet, to proof his mantle. He needs to get to the top 2 soon, to be given the opportunity by LGL and to be the main player for China.
 
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Ma Long has been failing to get himself good titles since 2009. If he would've won 2009 WTTC or World Cup (instead of losing to Samsonov) He would have participated in 2010 World Cup and be able to qualify for 2011 as well. Also if he won 2011 WTTC he would've qualified for World Cup 2011 and Olympics. In both WTTC's he lost to Wang Hao. Isn't it just logic and justice that Wang gets to participate in the World Cup and Olympics and not Ma Long?

You always have this with a knock-out system. 96 table tennis athletes were in the London Men's Singles tournament. 5 of them have played against Zhang Jike. Does that make Zhang Jike a lucky winner because he didn't have to play against the other 90? No, he is the deserved Grand Slam winner and currently the best table tennis player on earth.
 
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Ma Long has been failing to get himself good titles since 2009. If he would've won 2009 WTTC or World Cup (instead of losing to Samsonov) He would have participated in 2010 World Cup and be able to qualify for 2011 as well. Also if he won 2011 WTTC he would've qualified for World Cup 2011 and Olympics. In both WTTC's he lost to Wang Hao. Isn't it just logic and justice that Wang gets to participate in the World Cup and Olympics and not Ma Long?

You always have this with a knock-out system. 96 table tennis athletes were in the London Men's Singles tournament. 5 of them have played against Zhang Jike. Does that make Zhang Jike a lucky winner because he didn't have to play against the other 90? No, he is the deserved Grand Slam winner and currently the best table tennis player on earth.

(speechless)
 
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I think even in a finale between zhang and ma long ... zhang would be the winner, because of his mental power. and ma long had his chances to join the olympic single, but he was injured when the seeding list was made. bad luck. and liu wanted wang hao to win the olympics ... thats all. next tournement zhang will face ma long and will go down ;) thats the history of table tennis ... the greatest player of major tournements just won his titles, because the very best player was not in the tournements :D

the so called "Best player" didnt manage to qualify 2 times ! if he was the best he would have won the grand slam , read wiwa's post , ma long had his chances and didnt make it . he is a great player but not the best . best players win !
 
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:(

Well its fair to give Zhang the credit for a brilliant performance and winning gold but ultimately we all know that we were robbed from the match of the decade between Long and Jike........and we all know how that would have turned out in our minds, one could actually see the dissapointment in Ma Long's eyes as he watched the match.
Truly said. If it was Ma long in the finals.. The result would have been different :( Ma could have Won his First Gold Medal.. Its all due to Liu Guiliang's Love to Wang hao.. :(
 
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Truly said. If it was Ma long in the finals.. The result would have been different :( Ma could have Won his First Gold Medal.. Its all due to Liu Guiliang's Love to Wang hao.. :(


Ma Long did not qualify for singles.

Here is the rule in question:

SINGLES EVENTS
The first two players to qualify per gender and per NOC will participate in singles events. The order of qualification will be firstly ITTF World Ranking, then Continental qualification, and finally the Final World Qualification event.

Any third qualified player from an NOC will be provisionally qualified for the Team event only (up to the number of teams required).

This one needs repeating:

Any third qualified player from an NOC will be provisionally qualified for the Team event only.

Ma Long was the THIRD QUALIFIER. Therefore he qualified for team only. HE DID NOT QUALIFY FOR SINGLES AND WAS NOT ELIGIBLE TO PLAY IN THE SINGLES EVENT BECAUSE HE DID NOT QUALIFY FOR IT.

Here is the link to the entire list of rules for qualifying including how players were selected from the top 28 for up to the first 2 slots for any country with players in the top 28, and that the world rankings used would be May 2011 (after the World Championships).

http://ittf.com/World_Events/2012OG/Qual_system_OG2012_EN.pdf

Wang Hao was the first Chinese player to qualify, (#1 ranked in May 2011).

Zhang Jike was the second Chinese player to qualify, (#3 ranked in May of 2011).

Ma Long was #5 at the time.

So it had nothing to do with Liu Gouliang liking anyone. The qualification process decided who played singles.

We will see what happens in the next big tournament that Zhang Jike and Ma Long end up playing in the finals against each other. Talk is cheap. I like Ma Long. I don't love him. I like him. I like Zhang Jike. I don't love him. I like him. Both are good players.

Jike won the World Championships first time at the event. That says something. He won the Olympics first time there. That also says something.

In 2011 in the semifinals, Ma Long lost to Wang Hao. Yes, that is right. Ma Long did lose to Wang Hao, a player he usually beats. He lost to a player he usually beats IN THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS. I think it is interesting. He did not play Zhang Jike in the finals in 2011 because he did not get to the finals. Had he won the World Championships, his ranking would have been high enough for him to play in the singles event in the Olympics.
 
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it's a stupid and mindless qualification process all the same...the olympics is the best where the best should fight it out...even if you do consider two players from each country, qualifications based on rankings almost a year and a half prior to the tournament is insane. the top two current players from each country should qualify.simple as that.not just for ma long's sake, for everybody infact. in a bid to lessen the chinese domaination, the ITTF is making stupid rules, which could potentially affect the european countries as well...somebody needs to tell them that.

and as for ma long, i love him...and he's my best at this point and he remains the only player capable of beating jike at the moment( not forgetting xu xin)....but the fact remains he's faltered at places where he could have won. he is not as mentally strong as jike is though he is a better all round player than jike.only by a small level though.liu guoliang himself points out ma long's understanding of table tennis is marginally better than jike's.that is the reason why he's been so succesful against him.lets not forget WTTC 2011 was his first major tournament after his injury, and wang hao is a good enough player, as we all know, who can cash in on the slightest of openings given by opponents. the talk about ma long being in the olympics and beating jike is stupid, because he is not, and lets get on with the rules. jike has been excellent, to keep up his level and focus and ma long has been phenomenal since his comeback from injury. partly due to his faults, and being a tad unlucky too, he has not been able to win as much majors as he would have liked to...but i'm sure, that in the coming days, with xu xin coming into the fray....ovtcharov, niwa, mizutani getting better, we have mouth watering rivalries coming up post olympics!!!
 
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it's a stupid and mindless qualification process all the same...the olympics is the best where the best should fight it out...even if you do consider two players from each country, qualifications based on rankings almost a year and a half prior to the tournament is insane. the top two current players from each country should qualify.simple as that.not just for ma long's sake, for everybody infact. in a bid to lessen the chinese domaination, the ITTF is making stupid rules, which could potentially affect the european countries as well...somebody needs to tell them that.

and as for ma long, i love him...and he's my best at this point and he remains the only player capable of beating jike at the moment( not forgetting xu xin)....but the fact remains he's faltered at places where he could have won. he is not as mentally strong as jike is though he is a better all round player than jike.only by a small level though.liu guoliang himself points out ma long's understanding of table tennis is marginally better than jike's.that is the reason why he's been so succesful against him.lets not forget WTTC 2011 was his first major tournament after his injury, and wang hao is a good enough player, as we all know, who can cash in on the slightest of openings given by opponents. the talk about ma long being in the olympics and beating jike is stupid, because he is not, and lets get on with the rules. jike has been excellent, to keep up his level and focus and ma long has been phenomenal since his comeback from injury. partly due to his faults, and being a tad unlucky too, he has not been able to win as much majors as he would have liked to...but i'm sure, that in the coming days, with xu xin coming into the fray....ovtcharov, niwa, mizutani getting better, we have mouth watering rivalries coming up post olympics!!!

I agree with a lot of this. Many players from the top 20 did not get into the singles event. I know that in other sports this happened as well, like gymnastics. It was the Olympic Committee not the ITTF that insisted that only 2 players from each country be allowed to compete. The OC is concerned with medal sweeps. But in making the rules for adhering to the OC's demands, the ITTF should have used the rankings from April of 2012 instead of May 2011 in my opinion.

The two top players for China did qualify, but it was the two top players from May 2011 and they are not the same players as the two top players from China today.

In the future we also might also have to look out for players like Fang Bo and Yan An or some of the other kids that will come up.
 
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you are spot on...i said the current best players should have been selected. even if in some crazy world you do accept IOC 's concern for medal sweeps...the qualification based on last year's WTTC is dumbfounding. the ITTF should have ensured that this did not happen. i mean not just for china, it can present tough situations for every country...its pretty hard to comprehend the logic behind this decision. it defies almost everything.

and you are right, a good crop of junior players are coming up too. and who knows who's it going to be at rio?....personally, i can't wait for WTTC 2015...it's going to be some tournament....barring any unfortunate injuries though. But really, we do have exciting times ahead !
 
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