9 Macau Palace World Cup ⑤
◎【Edit】Finals: Zhu Qi VS Li Keshan①◎
Yesterday, the report that a 15-year-old Chinese girl reached the World Cup final quickly spread as newspapers circulated.
Not only did the entire nation not know who Zhu Qi was, even the reporters at CCTV6 were curious about her.
In order to understand this player, CCTV6 contacted the International Table Tennis Federation overnight and bought all the matches that Zhu Qi had participated in and studied them all night long.
What? !
A small grand slam at the age of fourteen?
Fifteen-year-old World Youth Championship women's singles champion?
This little girl is amazing!
[Dear friends watching TV, the World Cup final will begin in five minutes.]
[I believe many fans know that a mysterious female player appeared in this World Cup. ]
[But don't underestimate her because she's just a member of the provincial team. Because she won the women's singles championship at the World Youth Championship and received a letter of recommendation, she qualified for the World Championship Cup.]
I wonder if her participation as a solo competitor was a special arrangement by the national team, or if she simply wants to improve herself. Anyway, let's wait and see how she performs!
Because Chang Hongxia was defeated, Jiang Guangming, who had originally planned to take the women's table tennis team back to Chaobei, stayed where he was.
He looked at the girl standing on the side of the table, waiting for the referee to toss a coin to determine the serving order, and was speechless.
When he saw Zhu Qi at the World Championship Cup, he knew it must have been arranged by Lao Ren, and the letter of recommendation must have been written by Lao Ren to the International Table Tennis Federation.
It just so happened that an athlete withdrew from the World Cup due to injury, and the schedule was difficult to arrange due to one missing spot, so they did Ren a favor.
But he really didn't expect that Zhu Qi was only one step away from the Golden Throne!
Perhaps it was because the opponents did not understand Zhu Qi's fighting style, were too unfamiliar with her and underestimated her?
Perhaps it was because the strong opponents in Zone C were eliminated early, and Zhu Qi was just too lucky?
Perhaps Zhu Qi came prepared and made sufficient arrangements for the contestants?
Maybe...
No.
wrong.
Sports competition.
How can anyone be lucky all the time?
Eliminating these impossible factors, the only explanation is that she relied on her own strength.
Is this possible?
Even though he had seen Zhu Qi's training matches with the male players in the provincial team and knew that the kid had solid skills, it was just a small fight at the provincial team level.
An athlete from a provincial team.
I have not experienced the long-term quenching training from the second national team to the first national team.
Without passing the brutal selection of the team's direct qualifying tournament, he just... made it to the finals?
Jiang Guangming took his seat in the audience.
He really wanted to know how Zhu Qi was going to beat Li Keshan.
Li Keshan is a veteran Korean player who belongs to the same group of veteran female table tennis players as Chang Hongxia, Ding Shushu, etc. She has a wealth of competition experience!
Although he is a little older, his skills are still excellent.
Her ball control skills that allow her to change the landing point of her fast attacks near the table are world-famous.
Li Keshan's technique is to chop with rotation, which can cut off the opponent's rotation and then attack the opponent at a large angle.
Some people with slower pace may not be able to keep up with her large angle changes and lose points.
Chang Hongxia suffered a lot from this.
This little girl...can she do it?
After the coin toss, the music in the square stopped abruptly and everyone remained silent.
The game has begun.
From the start, Li Keshan played very aggressively.
He used his best first three shots to frequently attack Zhu Qi's forehand, hoping to end the game as soon as possible and win the first singles championship in the three major tournaments in his life.
In this competition, her biggest competitors Chang Hongxia and Japan's Hashiro Mihui were both eliminated.
Victory belongs to her!
But the ball hit back by the 15-year-old girl made Li Keshan feel depressed.
When the ball lands on the racket, there is a heavy feeling as if it were hit by a small hammer.
This means that the ball hit by the opponent is very spinning!
The girl looked young, weak and powerless, but her body was extremely flexible, like a nimble little leopard, leaping and flying back and forth on the edge of the table.
Several balls that seemed unreachable were caught by her somehow.
Just as Li Keshan was waiting to exert his strength and was looking for an opportunity to smash the ball, Zhu Qi took the lead! He suddenly exerted his strength!
The white ball fell on the opponent's table like a lightning with afterimage!
Li Keshan was shocked!
Watching the referee flipping the scoreboard, I didn't realize I was defeated in the first round!
[First game, Zhu Qi 11:9 Li Keshan]
[Big score, Zhu Qi 1:0 Li Keshan]
Zhu Qi leads by one game.
"Good shot!" He Qianlu shouted, cheering for Zhu Qi.
"I heard from the coaches of the Jianghuai provincial team that everyone calls her Baobao because she plays with such force. It seems she lives up to her name and has no fear of the stage," the male commentator praised.
[Look at Baobao's small, quick steps, his heels never touching the ground. Doesn't this gait resemble that of an old friend?] The female commentator suddenly noticed something.
I've been meaning to say this before, table tennis players generally prefer crab steps, which provide a more stable grip. These small, forefoot-gripping steps are extremely rare, and her topspin-and-fast-break system is very similar to that of a person—
[Look at the man in the coaching seat again, and you'll understand.]
After the commentator’s reminder, the audience in front of the TV also reacted.
Isn't this He Qianlu? !
The athlete who was expelled from the national team for alleged soliciting prostitution?
The audience sat in front of the TV and talked about it.
[Oh my, I think this little girl's steps were definitely taught by He Qianlu himself. I thought I'd never see such beautiful little steps again after He Qianlu retired.]
How come he brought this little girl with him? Why did his family agree to this?
I heard from my fourth uncle's younger cousin that there was something fishy about that prostitution incident. I heard that the Chinese team wanted to hire a lawyer for He Qianlu, but the Israelis refused to let him see one.
[But I remember that the national team didn't say they were going to fire He Qianlu. It was He Qianlu who resigned from the national team on his own.]
[Oh my god, is this true? Is there going to be anything wrong?]
When people saw the man on TV who reappeared in their sight after five years, they finally remembered that he was once a hero who fought for the honor of the country, as well as many details of the scandal that year.
When He Qianlu was young, he was dragged by his grandfather to learn lion dancing because he was too naughty. However, he dropped out of the kindergarten after less than a year because he really didn't like it.
But he kept the basic skill of jumping over the pole with one leg and used it later when he played table tennis.
This lion dance step has extremely strong core capabilities, solid grip on the ground, and flexibility - a technique and tactic specifically designed to counter changes in landing points.
This set of "Lion Jump" was lost in the martial arts world after He Qianlu retired.
Although many people wanted to imitate it later, they never got it right.
Zhu Qi's upper body hardly moved at all, and no one knew where she would move next.
During the three years that Han Taiyang studied in China, he also practiced "jumping pile and small steps" with He Qianlu for a period of time.
Although he had only practiced the basics, he was able to sweep away the Korean team that scored by changing the landing point.
And now, every move of Zhu Qi is almost exactly the same as He Qianlu's.
The detail of the "Lion Dance Step" is that when the forefoot grasps the ball, it slightly pushes off the ground, causing the upper body and even the arms to have a slight fluctuation, which can add a little strange spin to the ball.
It is like a brave and invincible little lion, with strong attack and entanglement capabilities and extraordinary flexibility.
Li Keshan wiped his sweat while looking at the nimble girl in front of him, feeling so angry that he wanted to hit her.
Ahsi!
It’s so difficult!!
Oppa is right, just like her coach! She's a dog! She bites and won't let go! Mad dog, bitch!
Li Keshan is best at hitting the ball close to the middle table.
But this child's steps can move quickly in the middle of the table, increasing his ability to protect the table.
Zhu Qi [2:2] Li Keshan, game point tied.
Halftime break.
The girl stood by the table and wiped the sweat from her face.
"Hu, hu..." The girl adjusted her breathing and calmed her mind.
The soft light hit her delicate little face, and all the onlookers were amazed. To put it bluntly, she was only the age of a junior high school student.
No one expected the score to be so close.
Although Zhu Qi was only two points ahead in the fourth game, which was considered a narrow victory, it greatly dampened Li Keshan's fighting spirit.
Song Linzhou sat in the audience, looking at the girl wiping her sweat in front of the coach's seat, and admired her sincerely.
“She played really well.”
The little fat boy stared wide-eyed and nodded repeatedly.
I thought she was just an ordinary little girl who might have known about sports and knew a little about table tennis.
I didn’t expect that he would be the biggest dark horse in this World Cup!
It turns out... her name is Zhu Qi.
Song Linzhou was sitting in the audience. The sea of people around him seemed to be able to drown him, but the only person in his sight was the girl with a towel around her neck, drinking water with her head tilted back.
He Qianlu gestured in front of her, "I'm telling you, her physical strength is almost failing. Keep pulling her to the far table, let her run in the middle and long distance, and try not to hit forehands. When serving, feed her a few over-the-baseline drives to choke her in the middle and long distance."
"I have to keep hitting the long ball." Zhu Qi said to himself.
"Yes, it's the long ball. Even though she seems to be able to return a few long shots, she'll start making mistakes on the next shot. Her brain isn't working anymore, she's numb, like a stick, and she starts swinging her racket around aimlessly." He Qianlu held a towel as a fan, fanning Zhu Qi to cool her down while mumbling. "Then alternate between hitting a few short and long balls for her, mixing real and fake, real and fake, giving her a bit of Sun Tzu's Art of War."
The pause time is up.
The fifth game begins.
He Qianlu watched the girl walk to the table, pick up the racket, wipe the dust off the racket, catch the white ball thrown by the referee, and lean over to get into a serving position.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up.
The girl bent her right hand slightly, tossed the ball with her left hand, and quickly twisted the racket when the ball landed almost close to her abdomen.
The white ball was like a silver lightning, almost brushing past the net, and the ball bounced back with a very low arc after landing.
This was He Qianlu's former specialty, a fast running serve beyond the baseline!
When Li Keshan hit back with a hook shot, the white ball spun around on the net and returned to Li Keshan's table.
The ball missed the net.
Zhu Qi scored.
[Fifth game, Zhu Qi 1:0 Li Keshan]
Li Keshan raised his hands high, thinking that he had finally caught Zhu Qi's fault, and screamed with excitement.
"Let! (Smash the net)"
【Author’s words】
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