I am disgusted!

M51 said:

Solution - rob our kids of their childhoods and turn them into robots.

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How does the football, basketball, swimmers, tennis kids do it?

thats the difference

in china, they work hard during all their youth to be the best, i dont know if they like it or not, but it gives results.
if in europe the is little people interested in doing that hard work...so...well we have to deal with the chinese beeing the best.

The guy named Fan Zhendong is just sick.

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Quoting myself from the thread about the World Junior Championship 2012.

I love his technique and spirit so I didn't mind him beating Ovtcharov in the final. Actually I'm already glad that it wasn't a Chinese final again because those matches do get pretty boring by now and I hope the same happens at the upcoming Russian and Swedish Open.

You shouldn't be disgusted...China are just doing what they always do...striving to be better than the rest of the world! If anything you should just be disappointed with Europe's progress in the sport.

The appearance of Fan Zhendong on the world scene is not accidental: it's bound to happen. Actually, I believe it must happen one day.

It's not just "good luck" on the part of China. It's called talent management. They provide the right atmosphere, the right career path, the appropriate facility. With all these coupled with the huge population, talented children are actively sought out and trained from a very young age. Life as a table tennis player in China is not like in other countries (including mine, sadly). In my country, when a successful athlete wins, the whole country baskes in his/her fame. But when that athlete is too old to be in the lime light, he/he pretty much has to fend for himself/herself. Most of them live in such a state of poverty because there is no actual career path to care for them after their active athletic period.

If you're assured of a good life after your table tennis prime, wouldn't you pour your wholehearted attempt to train for the first twenty years of your life to be well cared for for the rest of your life?

I don't think Fan Zhendong makes the scene worse. With chinese dominance for the last ten years, one more talented chinese player won't aggravate the situation much.
If you hark back to the Waldner's period, isn't it just the same? Waldner seemed to win every tournament and no one said that it was bad for the table tennis scene?

Unfortunately the sad truth is that Europe will never resurrect itself but will continue to decline thanks to the world elite agenda. Greedy pigs who care only about a financial gain and see no point in protecting traditional values of people and their families.

Fan Zhendong skill is purely a result of a ruthless regime that is undergoing in China - that's the undisputable truth. It serves as an abuse of nature and unfairness. European kids are already spoiled up and weakened today due to the indoctrinating self-hate and degenrating programmes that they're being shoved up their noses. It's no wonder Chinese subjugates us in, outcompeting every sphere of life whether that is sport, global market, buying up property or places at uni. Hopefully more people are going to wake up since for now we just foolishly sit by and let them overtake us.

I remember back in the early 2000's it was still quite interesting to watch table tennis, I got so passionate after watching Ma Lin vs Werner Schlager. The europeans still had chances to match the chinese, and the chinese had their own different style using penhold grip and that was interesting to watch. Now it's harder and harder to watch the tournaments as it is just simply overpowered and abused.

I totally disagree. Does that mean you want FZD to stop playing so others could win? If the boy worked hard for it, then he definitely deserves the title. Perhaps this would motivate younger players to train harder, because to what FZD just displayed in the German Open, regardless of their age, they could also win anything. Cheers!

Look at the positive side of this.

I can tell my son who is starting to play TT that age doesn't matter in TT. Even a 16-year-old boy with enough dedication to training can win against adults.
And also that youth is not required to excel in TT. Just look at Samsonov. He doesn't use much speed/strength to overwhelm his opponents. Just good tactics and proper ball placement can help you win your matches.

No one is perfect. Everyone has weak points. If you find them and can exploit them, you can win.

For those who are disgusted, get a grip. Fan has come from nowhere in the last 12 months, & risen to the top. He is the product of Chinese dedication to the sport.
This doesn't mean there's no space at the top for the rest of the world.
If we look at the rest of China (in men's tt) the elite players are being beaten by others more often than 5 years ago.
The young ones are beaten regularly, and older ones are beaten by the likes of Kenta, Dima & Chuang.
In my view, the gap is closing. Fan Zhendong will undoubtedly take his spot at the top, and become everything Ma Long could have been.
He is China's super soldier, and I honestly don't know how anybody can get that good!! However, the pool below him will be much more distributed in a few years, mark my words...

I think we should not judge Fan just yet - he has not proven himself against the top chinese players like Ma Long, Wang Hao, Xu Xin and so. I remember Yan An playing crazily like this in the earlier part of the year - beating ZJK, XX, and was VERY close to beating Ma Long on multiple occasions. Everyone was talking about him being the leader of the U21 CNT. Then a few months later he stopped peaking.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that the reason why everyone thinks Fan is like the wildest and the best in the world right now is because he only had to play against > WR 5 players - to win two titles back-to-back. He might've beaten Zhang but I'm pretty sure along with other ZJK fans too that Zhang only peaks when he wants to (like big competitions etc.) So the craze about Fan being really good at his age is because of perspective - think about this --> had XX, ML, or even Wang Hao decided to play in these two tourneys, they would probably have met Fan in earlier rounds, maybe even in the second or third. And what then? I'm very sure Fan can't beat either three (even WH). So if he were to lose in the early stages, even against the top chinese, I think we would all think of him VERY differently. Just like the WTTC this year- he lost to ZJK in R3. ZJK may have went on to win the title, but we all still think of Fan's loss as any other loss in the earlier rounds. So - it's all about perspective.

Now I'm not denying Fan is any good. I think he belongs in the top 5. Like I said he earlier he could beat A LOT of >WR 5 players, and I'm sure he can beat them again any other time. So now I'm gonna try to talk about why Fan's that good (for his age or whatever; top 5 in the world is vERY good anyway)

I think this has been mentioned earlier - culture. Not just in TT, or sports, but even in MANY other aspects - Chinese are very, very hardworking. AND VERY COMPETITIVE, Like a few of you said earlier, once you start slacking you're off the team. Compared to the Europeans, that's very harsh. I think if you were to take someone of Timo's level (or Timo himself), and have him be on the CNT, they'll probably end up like Ma Lin or Wang Liqin. They still have the skills and of course a lot of experience but on the CNT they aren't that important anymore. Vice versa, if you were to take them out of China and have them play for other teams, they might even be the best from where they represent.

And also the Chinese always have each other to practise against, and since they're level is the best, as long as they keep playing with each other they'll always keep improving. I think if you want to be good at a sport you always have to keep playing with someone on a higher level than you. But that's just not possible for the non-Chinese. So the Chinese are almost indestructible, and will be so for decades to come.

Back to Fan. I strongly agree with you guys to that with Fan playing at his level, at this age, the years of TT to come will definitely be dull. Unless of course you enjoy seeing a young one upsetting the older players (although they wouldn't be called upsets anymore). Imagine if he was playing like this last year - when he was still U15. Even crazier. I understand your pain as I feel it too. Honestly, I can't wait to see FZD against Ma Long and Xu Xin, or maybe even ZJK at this top to see how he performs. Also I can't wait for the December rankings. Nevertheless Fan has proven convincingly that he is worthy of being in the top 5 of the world. And winning 2 Men's world titles back-to-back at only 16 while having to beat more experienced top 10 players of the world is just AMAZING. Dull, but amazing.

If the 16 yr old champ FZ was European? Would you think such a thing?
The only downside to FZ is he never experienced what it is to be an ordinary kid. China took it from him.

Europeans prefer balance (academic vs non academic) and that is the result of Dima's defeat. This is purely a choice of life.

Michal_Z said:

I just watched the final of German open, which is probably the most prestigious tournament in europe Pro Tours, if not the most prestigious Pro Tour tournament, and in the tournament everyone was pretty much destroyed by just a 16 years old kid.
I mean - what the hell?!
I am really disgusted at this,..
I am sorry for Fan Zhendong fans, but this is just sick. How can european players .. or lets say - non chinese players - be motivated and even think about winning a tournament, when they get their ass kicked by just a 16 years old kid?!
Frankly, seeing this, its making me wanna trow out..
Its is just no good for the competition.
Fan Zhendong played really some amazing table tennis and I hated it, because of his age. If he can do this in 16 years old, that means, for the next 10 years, I really dont see any chance for any non chinese player to even think of becomming a world champion.
And that is just not good for the competition.
Once again - I am disgusted!

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Sorry, i don't wanna sound nasty. But defeat alone should be your motivation put aside the fact that he's chinese or sixteen years old. Disgusted!! c´mon you think that Fan Zhendong got that good out of the blue? Of course not... that only mean that every other player that want to beat him should train as hard. That's your motivation.

If europe and the world want to play better, train better making modifications to the sport will not make it easier to defeat chinese, lets get to the point here: the chinese have discipline, they work with discipline and determination put their egos aside, listen to their coaches, I dont think that in the world there is such cultural discipline. The Chinese apply this phylosophy not just in table tennis but in all kind of activities and thats why they are so good.

M51 said:

I said it in chat, I'll repeat it here - Fan Zhendong is the epitome of everything that's wrong with modern table tennis. So much raw power, so much insane speed, it's getting less and less pretty to watch. The Chinese dominance pretty much killed the interest for the sport here in Europe too.

I think it's about time ITTF did something. Raising the net for a centimeter or two should be the first step.

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really i think its the opposite. unless the whole of europe wants to become french... y ou know what i mean.. instead perhaps europe should look at it from a diferent point of view like.. actually try even harder..

I am not a chinese. But I seriously do not see anything wrong with Fan Zendong winning the tournament. Just like China's head coach Liu Guoliang once said, "If u want to beat the chinese team, train harder". Disgusted? I suppose that is only a problem for the few people out there as the result clearly shows how some people can achieve greatness with extra hardwork and perhaps with the blessings of good coaches and players around him. You shouldn't feel that way as it is clearly not his (Fan Zendong) fault for winning the most prestigious pro tour in europe. You should blame the european players for not trying to be more flexible and using their advantages in games (europeans are physically larger; hence easier to reach the other end of the table in certain situations). Train harder as well, ok.

Calm down

I´m German and what I have been watching yesterday wasn´t that bad, in fact it was great. I think Dima made a very positiv progression in the last year. He beat Timo three times in a row, ok Timo was´nt really on the top of his performance level.
Dima beat some Chinese Players in the SuperLeague, progressed to Nr. 5 in the world. Get European Champion. I think, that´s quite a lot. European players are not Chinese that´s true, but would we want them to be ? Me not.
And if I see all the developments in China, this uge buildings to change the way of big streams to get water to the north. The pollution and the unhuman treatment of children in schools to drill them to definite therselves just by their achievments. I don´t want that for my children. To be Nr. One is just one way of living, and not everybody can get it. Maybe it´s better for all of us not to go on, in this bigger, better, more way. Finally it kills the planet.
Dima was a bit exhausted from the day before, the great and really breathtaking Match against Shioto cost´s a lot of power. So thats human, he´s not a robot.
If you can´t or won´t be like Chinese, be diffrent. I like to see Samsonov, Freitas, Kreanga, Pitchford, Franziska, Niwa, Mizutani and all these guys. Also Winter and Solja, they progressed too.
But the Chinese are the best, so what. Vettel wins 8 in a row, quite boring.
In womens doubles the two japanese Girls were about to win, but they failed, thats sports. Boll/Franziska won but it was nearly lost and so tight, thats also sports. But Ai Fukuhara was laughing and had fun with her Chinese opponent Wen, that was great and also an important thing in sports to respect your opponent and after the fight friendship is possible.
Boll and Dima in China at the marriage of Cheng Qi, thats also part of sports. Peace!

I felt disgusted after reading some post here.

There's a legend in the making and you guys should be honored to witness it.

I don't recall the entire world bitching when 16 yr olds won major TENNIS championships.

We can say this and that on the forums, but until we countires who are not China build infrastructure, change culture, get more player involvement and provide a better path to professional career for more than a few players, develop a system of where the top players converge to a center to actually train to the extent as is done in China... good luck.

Who said raise net height? Exactly what is that going to do to "level" the playing field? That would bring back the pips out hitters to become the gorillas of TT or make everyone shoot spin loaded mortar shots each hit. Do we really want that?

Table tennis is an individual sport and the better man in a head to head wins !! And if the better man is a 16 year old teenager from China , so be it !!! The thing is there is no such thing as a country destroying a sport by dominating it !! If that was the case, then Brazil or Argentina would have destroyed football or soccer, west indies in the 70s and Australia in the 80s and 90s would have destroyed cricket, America would have destroyed basketball and the list goes on endlessly . What dominance does is it challenges the rest of the world to come up with something better , helps devise new strategies and skills and overall, helps the sport grow. If samsonov at his sunset years can give him trouble think what waldner at his prime would have done to him !!! I think there is a lot of negative attitude in this sport , and I am sad to say its a lot of complaining and whining instead of looking at the brighter side. We are lucky to witness a legend in the making. Pele, Maradona, Ali , Waldner , Tendulkar, Federer etc. all were prodigies that went on to become legends . What if thats what is happening right now in table tennis ? ....... Lets wait and watch and please please enjoy this beautiful game of ours. The nationality does not matter.