that last set was fantastic. How the atmosphere changed after that snake was amazing to watch. Also shows how much this sport is about mentality. Truls could finally play with less pressure and created some spectacular points
Don’t forget Möregårdh did beat the Chinese number one and ranked number one in the world, previous in the tournament and he is just 24 so he should be in his prime
Amazing Fan Zhendong! Something truly special here, Fan's Coach, Wang Hao, which you see on the sideline, is a very decorated player himself with 3 Silver Medals in the Olympic singles event. He sadly wasn't able to get the gold during his career, which was the one missing throphy for him to achieve the 'Table Tennis Grand Slam' - WTTC - World Cup - Olympic Gold He retired in 2014, and decided to take up coaching, then becoming Fan's personal coach for the majority of Fan's career. You can clearly see what it means to him that his protigé was now able to achieve what had been barely out of reach for himself. Truly something beautiful! ❤ Wang Hao
He was my favorite player growing up but getting Fan as protegé in 2014/15 is like getting Messi after his first Ballon d'Or. Dude won the German Open at barely 16 beating Ovtcharov 4:0 in the final.
He became a world champion in 2017 in doubles, 2021 in singles and won the World Cup in 2016. He has multiple titles in all of those categories. Don't make it unnecessarily dramatic. He lost to Ma Long a couple of times in WCs and in one olympic final but has also won a whole lot and is still just 27.
Fighting back to 8-10 with so many match balls against you is incredible. Well done Truls. But why was he so stunned by Fan's return on the last point? Truls served him a long fast ball with spin that would direct the ball back to Truls' own forehand. So shouldn't he expect the ball deep in his forehand (or down the middle). Such a pity, I think he had all the momentum in the set
Most of the points FZD gave up from 10:3 onwards were unforced errors. There was not much pressure on Fan and there was no way he would lose this set. The victory was all but guaranteed from 10:3 on.
Call me fun at parties, but I'd say at 8-10 Truls had around 15% chance to take the set (2 coinflips up to 10-10 and then another coinflip for the set. That's 12,5%, then add some for Truls being on a run).
@@astral6060 Don't get me wrong, FZD deserved to win the match and should have easily won the set. BUT what I was saying is, Truls started to gain momentum after this "trick shot". He blew the momentum and the match by being unprepared for the predictable return. Winning because of unforced errors by a nervous opponent happens many times - and I think Truls had a chance to steal the set this way. Nothing is guaranteed if you lose focus and FZD started to struggle with his focus. If you lose focus you will lose against a weaker player, if the weaker player makes less unforced errors. Just watch Maze vs Shuai from WTTC 2005. Maze was down 0:3 in sets and started playing high lops. He won 4 sets in a row because Shuai completedly lost focus and made so many unforced errors. Coming back from 0:3 on sets is much more difficult than coming back from 10:3 down in one single set.
@@YanuarTriAdityaNugrahayeah sure Ma long is the greatest of all time as of now. But with this win Fan is second only to him. He has more Pro tour wins and 2 more World Cup wins than Zhang Jike (while also having an additional silver medal from the world championship). While Jan Ove Waldner was great and basically ties with Fan when it comes to Olympia results and has more medals from the world championship (same amount of golds but two second places instead of 1 and one more semi final appearance than Fan). However he has significantly less pro tour wins and also only managed to win the World Cup once compared to zhendongs 4. Ryu Seung min isn‘t even remotely close. He never won the World Cup or world championships and never managed to get further than the best 32 in Olympia with exception of the year that he won the tournament.
Well deserved gold for Fan. He was the better player. Silver for Truls was a victory in itself. Might take the gold in 4 years. Fan in Swedish means devil and is a curse word by the way... 😄
This can be the last glorious, sadly. I feel Ma Long is like Lin Dan of Chinese badminton, and Fan is like Chen Long. The domination will be gone after them.
Fan zd is only 27, with two mens singles titles at world championships and a silver and a gold at the Olympics. Does he have a chance to surpass ma long?
I hope people just dont look at the end result and think that this was a stomp. This game was so frickin close its crazy. Also Truls backhand is unlike we've ever seen from him. It could have been either one to win this game.
@@gongtaurgc3He has a point though. In table tennis, points can rack up really quickly due to the fast pace of the game. It was a close match where FZD came on top.
Too bad The Netherlands is not really competitive in this sport. Missed the whole tournament while I really love this sport. High dynamic, speed, skill, reaction, intelligence all required while the concept is so simple. Deserves more attention.
@@zhalang576 I understand what you mean but I missed the complete tournament. Football is also my first love but at work we play table tennis. For a recreational office player I’m doing pretty okay so I was looking forward to see some flashes of the greatest players. Have been watching Ma Long lately but it’s more fun to feel the real tension and watch live on television.
swedish guy here from Malmö who follows Truls alot. What he did this olympic games is something special. Sweden has big tradition in table tennis being the only country who could beat china couple of times in the late 80:s and in the 90:s. Anyway, for Truls coming into his first olympics with low rankings and performing like this and really giving Zhendong a match in the final is something special. This guy has choosen to train here in Sweden and train 6 hours a day. Compared to the chinese players who train over 10 hours a day. He can challenge them anyway becuase of his variation of shots.
Yep, someone understands whats going on. Truls choose being near his family and friends and home over being _constantly_ at a premium club. I admire his decision. This is the way. He is like Boll or Maze a "once in 3-4 decades talent in europe" imo. I wished that finally the chinese phalanx would haven been broken when it comes to these titles. Because this always triggers more love and popularity for the sport. Lets see what happens in 4years. I hope he keeps doing what he does best and thats his highly entertaining style on a world elite level.
So you mean Chinese players don’t have variations of shots? Biggest joke of all time!😂 Did you look at this match? You do know that Chinese table tennis players are individuals too right?? Everyone has their own style and capability and their own coach. You can’t say that all Chinese do this and that lol. Besides, if Chinese players didn’t have variations of shots they wouldn’t be as amazing as they are and they wouldn’t be able to beat other Chinese players 🤦🏻. Variations of shots seriously??
You don’t know how many hours the Chinese players are training. They’re individuals. So you mean it’s a good thing to not train as much or what? Those who practice swimming 2 hours a day compared to those who do 12 hours a day are better or more impressive?? If Truls wants a gold medal he will need to train more than now.
@@니나정신094 So finishing second in the Olympics and World Championships is not the highest level? That means only the top 3 chinese are on the highest level? I also wrote "world elite level" which he clearly is.
No he is not. Fan is the best and Wang Chuqin. Wang got his racket broken by a photographer who stomped on it after his gold in mixed double. So he had up use another one in the match against Truls.
In table tennis the sweet spot of hitting the ball is on the top part of the racket. The weird shape has less hit area on the bottom side of the racket and a slightly bigger sweet spot!
He’s sponsored by STIGA and they make a racket called the cybershape. It has a bigger sweet spot and you can play with more power. It’s all preferences in the end.
@@zerotalent191 I don't know, I've been playing in competition during 25 years and players could do that kind of terrible shot only with long-pimps or Curl's (name in Belgium). It was impossible with "normal" rubbers but you're maybe right 😉
