Zhang jike's lack of motivation?

TT fan · Jan 27, 2013

We all can agree that Zhang jike's performance in the Chinese super league, trials and lastly in the Austrian open has not been the greatest.

Zhang Jike with coach Liu Guoliang at the Austrian Open 2013 - Photo by: zimbio.com

Do you think this is because he already won every big title and he doesn't really care for anything else? or maybe he's been suffering some injury we still don't know.

Zhang Jike's match in the Austrian Open

Pongfinity · Jan 27, 2013

I think that he is just unmotivated. He is just 24 years old and already won everything in this sport. It seems that he would want to do something than play atm. But I'm sure that his attitude this week in Austria is something that the chinese coaches will talk with him very strictly about. There is a lot of other chinese players that would play those tournaments with a good attitude and perform better than ZJK did now... The chinese coaches won't accept that kind of attitude for a long time..

TTFrenzy · Jan 27, 2013

Its natural. The pressure to chinese players is immense. Imagine how would you feel if you clinched all the world titles in one year?Something no one has ever achieved before?

Combine this situation together with the fact that ZJK has a somehow "arrogant" character and there you go, u have a champion that feels he has nothing to prove anymore.Reaching the top is extremely difficult...staying there is true hell !

T!Christian · Jan 27, 2013

TTFrenzy said:
Its natural. The pressure to chinese players is immense. Imagine how would you feel if you clinched all the world titles in one year?Something no one has ever achieved before?

Combine this situation together with the fact that ZJK has a somehow "arrogant" character and there you go, u have a champion that feels he has nothing to prove anymore.Reaching the top is extremely difficult...staying there is true hell !

actually there have been 3 more who did a grand slam

ZJK · Jan 27, 2013

Yes but noone won grand slam in 1 year, of course this can't be an excuse for Jike.
I think that he is either overplayed (super league, WTTC Trials, many tournaments last year) or he currently has no motivation for ,,unimportant'' tournaments like the austrian open. I believe (and hope) he will be back in good shape in Paris.

dici · Jan 27, 2013

he might lose all his motivation at the current moment due to that he suddenly won all three grand slam in a single year period. I watched one of his interview with CCTV5 before, right after he won the WTTC, he did mention that he was very excited about being the champion. But after a week, he is getting tired about being a WTTC Champion, and he want to be Olympic Champion. So, this might affect his motivation.

And don't forget that he did injure his waist or back around 2-4 weeks ago, this might also slow down his mind alittle abit whenever he try to turn his body, to worry about re-injure the same spot.

Kevzar · Jan 27, 2013

Do you think he will aim for 2x grand slam?

TTFrenzy · Jan 27, 2013

T!Christian said:
actually there have been 3 more who did a grand slam

I wrote
"all the titles in one year"

. No one has achieved that so far

TTFrenzy · Jan 27, 2013

Kevzar said:
Do you think he will aim for 2x grand slam?

That would be crazy! But till 2016 he really needs to work even harder, I think its almost impossible to achieve something like that. Although I hop ZJK proves me wrong

revulucao · Jan 27, 2013

the problem is that Olympic games are so so far, if not, ma long playing all the year as he is doing now he would win the grand slam without difficulties

TT fan · Jan 28, 2013

who are the other three grand slammers?
China has plenty of good players and if he does not show some fighting spirit coaches maybe won't consider him. Let's see what happens in the third leg of the trials.

ZJK · Jan 28, 2013

Waldner, Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui

PlasmaLight · Jan 28, 2013

I would try to become the first 2 time grand slam winner

TTFrenzy · Jan 28, 2013

TT fan said:
who are the other three grand slammers?
China has plenty of good players and if he does not show some fighting spirit coaches maybe won't consider him. Let's see what happens in the third leg of the trials.

Jan Ove Waldner, Kong Linghui, Liu Guoliang

blahness · Jan 28, 2013

table tennis shouldn't name the ultimate achievement as a "Grand Slam" because it has been devalued by tennis. In tennis you have 4 tournaments a year = 16 opportunities in 4 years, and just winning one will make you a "Grand Slam" winner. In table tennis, you need to win Olympics (1 tournament every 4 years), WTTC (1 tournament every 2 years) and WC (1 tournament per year), in order to be a "Grand Slam".

IMO it is much harder to be a table tennis "grand slam" champion than a tennis "grand slam" champion, so we shouldn't be associating this immense achievement with "grand slam".

ttunreal · Jan 28, 2013

TT fan said:
We all can agree that Zhang jike's performance in the chinese super league, trials and lastly in the austrian open has not been the greatest.
Do you think this is because he already won every big title and he doesn't really care for anything else? or maybe he's been suffering some injury we still don't know.

Well, hopefully he's not demotivated because he won every big title! I don't think he should just relax now, just because he's got a grand slam! I just hope he raise his game up if he does go to the WTTC in Paris!

XIII · Jan 28, 2013

From old videos, my dad says it's his attitude, if he feels good he plays, if he doesn't he plays badly.

bricephan · Jan 28, 2013

No matter what he is at the moment, he still hasn't been able to beat Ma Long or Xu Xin consistently as he did against other Chinese teammates. And in fact, the number of times which Ma Long defeat both in big three is even much higher than ZJK or Xu Xin could win over Ma Long. Judging on Ma Long's performance before and after Zhang Jike won Olympic and became Grand Slam player, I personally always think Ma Long is all way better, and Xu Xin - the strikingly raising star, will definitely be the rival opponent of Ma Long from now (or soon in future), not ZJK anymore. Sorry ZJK's fans..

ZJK · Jan 28, 2013

bricephan said:
No matter what he is at the moment, he still hasn't been able to beat Ma Long or Xu Xin consistently as he did against other Chinese teammates. And in fact, the number of times which Ma Long defeat both in big three is even much higher than ZJK or Xu Xin could win over Ma Long. Judging on Ma Long's performance before and after Zhang Jike won Olympic and became Grand Slam player, I personally always think Ma Long is all way better, and Xu Xin - the strikingly raising star, will definitely be the rival opponent of Ma Long from now (or soon in future), not ZJK anymore. Sorry ZJK's fans..

Noone in the world will ever be able to beat Ma Long & Xu Xin consistently.
I agree with you about Ma Longs performance after and before the big tournaments but for chinese (and also vor everyone else if you wanna get into TT history) only the 3 big events count.

TTFrenzy · Jan 28, 2013

ZJK said:
Noone in the world will ever be able to beat Ma Long & Xu Xin consistently.
I agree with you about Ma Longs performance after and before the big tournaments but for chinese (and also vor everyone else if you wanna get into TT history) only the 3 big events count.

Some Facts

World cups : ZJK reached finals two times, won it at his second attempt. Ma long failed two times in the semi finals, facing inferior opponents (samsonov & boll) and lost. He clinched the world cup without ZJK attending @ 2012

World championships : Ma long failed twice facing wang hao, a player who is consistent yes,but for ma long fans "no match for him". ZJK beat wang hao in his first attempt.

I dont take olympics into consideration because ma long was out due to his injury that caused him to fall in the ranking list.

What I am trying to say here is that, what makes a player great doesnt have to do with how staggering table tennis he can play, but if he can cope with situations under immense pressure. And ZJK proved he can do that.If they meet in the final @ wttc 2013 and even if ma long wins, it wont be an "easy win" as many ma long fans claim

Besides, ma long had more opportunities than ZJK to prove himself and he failed. Im not making a comparison about who is better here, dont get me wrong please

In the end if ma long manages to cope with pressure, then he will be greater than ZJK eventually.
But that is only a theoretical assumption, he must prove it on the court.

Zhang jike's lack of motivation?

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