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Fan Zhendong

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Fan Zhendong
Fan Zhendong on ITTF World Tour 2017 German Open
Personal information
Native name樊振东
NationalityChinese
Born (1997-01-22) 22 January 1997 (age 27)
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China[1]
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[2]
Weight77 kg (170 lb)[2]
Table tennis career
Playing styleRight-handed, Shakehand grip
Equipment(s)Butterfly Custom Viscaria ALC with DHS Hurricane 3 National (Blue Sponge) (FH, Black), Butterfly Dignics 09c (BH, Red)
Highest ranking1 (April 2018)[3]
Current ranking1 (11 January 2022)[4]
Medal record
Men's table tennis
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 1 1 0
World Championships 5 2 2
World Cup 7 1 0
Total 13 4 2
Representing  China
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2020 Tokyo Team
Silver medal – second place 2020 Tokyo Singles
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2014 Tokyo Team
Gold medal – first place 2016 Kuala Lumpur Team
Gold medal – first place 2017 Düsseldorf Doubles
Gold medal – first place 2018 Halmstad Team
Gold medal – first place 2021 Houston Singles
Silver medal – second place 2015 Suzhou Doubles
Silver medal – second place 2017 Düsseldorf Singles
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Suzhou Singles
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Budapest Mixed doubles
World Cup
Gold medal – first place 2015 Dubai Team
Gold medal – first place 2016 Saarbrücken Singles
Gold medal – first place 2018 London Team
Gold medal – first place 2018 Paris Singles
Gold medal – first place 2019 Tokyo Team
Gold medal – first place 2019 Chengdu Singles
Gold medal – first place 2020 Weihai Singles
Silver medal – second place 2015 Halmstad Singles
ITTF World Tour Grand Finals
Gold medal – first place 2017 Astana Singles
Gold medal – first place 2019 Zhengzhou Singles
Gold medal – first place 2019 Zhengzhou Doubles
Silver medal – second place 2015 Lisbon Singles
Silver medal – second place 2016 Doha Singles
Bronze medal – third place 2013 Dubai Singles
Military World Games
Gold medal – first place 2019 Wuhan Team
Gold medal – first place 2019 Wuhan Singles
Gold medal – first place 2019 Wuhan Doubles
Gold medal – first place 2019 Wuhan Mixed doubles
Asian Games
Gold medal – first place 2014 Incheon Team
Gold medal – first place 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Team
Gold medal – first place 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Singles
Silver medal – second place 2014 Incheon Singles
Silver medal – second place 2014 Incheon Doubles
Asian Championships
Gold medal – first place 2013 Busan Team
Gold medal – first place 2015 Pattaya Team
Gold medal – first place 2015 Pattaya Singles
Gold medal – first place 2015 Pattaya Doubles
Gold medal – first place 2015 Pattaya Mixed doubles
Gold medal – first place 2017 Wuxi Team
Gold medal – first place 2017 Wuxi Singles
Gold medal – first place 2017 Wuxi Doubles
Gold medal – first place 2019 Yogyakarta Team
Silver medal – second place 2019 Yogyakarta Doubles
Bronze medal – third place 2013 Busan Mixed doubles
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Yogyakarta Singles
Asian Cup
Gold medal – first place 2018 Yokohama Singles
Gold medal – first place 2019 Yokohama Singles
Silver medal – second place 2014 Wuhan Singles
Silver medal – second place 2015 Jaipur Singles
Silver medal – second place 2017 Ahmedabad Singles
East Asian Games
Gold medal – first place 2013 Tianjin Singles
Gold medal – first place 2013 Tianjin Team
Silver medal – second place 2013 Tianjin Doubles
Youth Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2014 Nanjing Singles
Gold medal – first place 2014 Nanjing Mixed team
World Junior Championships
Gold medal – first place 2012 Hyderabad Singles
Gold medal – first place 2012 Hyderabad Mixed doubles
Gold medal – first place 2012 Hyderabad Team
Silver medal – second place 2012 Hyderabad Doubles
Asian Youth Games
Gold medal – first place 2013 Nanjing Singles
Asian Junior Championships
Gold medal – first place 2012 Jiangyin Singles
Gold medal – first place 2012 Jiangyin Doubles
Gold medal – first place 2012 Jiangyin Team
Representing  China / People's Liberation Army
National Games of China
Gold medal – first place 2013 Liaoning Team
Gold medal – first place 2013 Liaoning Doubles
Gold medal – first place 2017 Tianjin Doubles
Silver medal – second place 2013 Liaoning Singles
Silver medal – second place 2017 Tianjin Singles
Bronze medal – third place 2017 Tianjin Team
All China Table Tennis Championships
Gold medal – first place 2014 Huangshi Singles
Gold medal – first place 2014 Huangshi Doubles
Gold medal – first place 2015 Harbin Mixed doubles
Gold medal – first place 2016 Anshan Singles
Gold medal – first place 2016 Anshan Doubles
Silver medal – second place 2014 Huangshi Team
Representing  China / Guangdong
National Games of China
Gold medal – first place 2021 Shaanxi Team
Gold medal – first place 2021 Shaanxi Singles
Representing Individual
All China Table Tennis Championships
Gold medal – first place 2020 Weihai Singles

Fan Zhendong (Chinese: 樊振东; pinyin: Fán Zhèndōng; born 22 January 1997) is a Chinese professional table tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 1 for men's singles by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).[5] After joining the Chinese National Table Tennis Team in 2012 as the youngest member of the team, he went on to become the youngest ITTF World Tour Champion and the youngest World Table Tennis Champion.[6][7] He achieved the top spot in the world rankings after holding position No. 2 for 29 consecutive months, starting from November 2015.[8]

Fan's attacking style of play involves explosive footwork and powerful forehand loops.[9] His thick-set build has led fans and commentators to affectionately refer to him as "Little Fatty" (Chinese: 小胖; pinyin: Xiǎo Pàng).[1] His continuous rise to becoming one of the top table tennis players in the world has garnered him a large fanbase worldwide, with over half a million followers on Chinese social media site Weibo. In 2016, he won the ITTF Star Point Award, and he was nominated for the Best Male Star Award every year between 2013 and 2016.[10]

Playing style and equipment

Fan is a Stiga sponsored athlete. However, he uses a Butterfly Viscaria blade but changed to a Stiga Infinity VPS V handle because of sponsoring Stiga. He uses a black DHS Hurricane 3 neo National Blue Sponge for forehand and a Red Tenergy 05 for backhand. During the 2019 world table tennis championships, he changed to the new Butterfly Dignics 05 on his backhand that had just been released on 1 April 2019.[11]

A right-handed shakehand-grip player, Fan plays an attacking style of table tennis using his explosive footwork and thunderous forehand loops to finish off his opponents. Emerging as a 16-year-old wunderkind, Fan's playing style is often compared to his senior compatriot Ma Long. In addition to being trained by national team coaches, he has been specially trained by both Wang Hao and Ma Lin. His encounters against senior players in the Chinese national team have drawn much speculation and anticipation. His fearlessness and technique allow him to challenge highly rated, experienced players, sometimes even beating top players in thrilling style.[citation needed]

Career

2021

In May, Fan played in the Chinese Olympic Scrimmages. He won all his group matches 3–0 and defeated 16-year-old break-out star Lin Shidong, who defeated Xu Xin in the group stage,[12] 4–2 in the quarter-finals.[13] Because of Lin's similarity to Fan, he received the nickname "Little Little Fatty" by Chinese netizens. Fan defeated Wang Chuqin in the semi-finals, but lost to the dark horse champion Zhou Qihao in the finals.[14] Fan was selected alongside Ma Long to represent China in the men's singles event at the Tokyo Olympics.[15] Fan won the second leg of the Chinese Olympic Scrimmage, coming back from down 8–4 and 3–1 in games to defeat Xu Xin in the finals.[16] Fan noted that his selection onto the Olympic team helped him focus better on his training and play better in the second leg compared to the first leg.[17] Zhou again upset Fan in a closed-door scrimmage in June.[18]

Although Ma Long called Fan the favorite before their Olympic finals match-up, Ma ended up upsetting Fan 4-2 in the Olympic finals, giving Ma the gold medal and Fan the silver. Afterwards, Fan called Ma the greatest player of our generation.[19]

In September, Fan saved six match points to beat Ma Long deuce in the fifth in the finals of the team event at the China National Games.[20] Fan's win over Ma delivered Team Guangdong the gold medal. Fan Zhendong also won the gold in the men's singles event.[21]

Playing style

In 2021, Timo Boll stated that he felt that he and Fan played a similar style except that Fan was better. Boll did not elaborate further.[22]

Fan raises his elbow higher on his strokes compared to some of his contemporaries such as Ma Long, resulting in a stronger backhand-forehand transition game at the expense of a more vulnerable middle.[23]

Achievements

Majors (Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup)
Year Event Location Type
Singles Doubles Team
2013 World Table Tennis Championships Paris, France Rd of 32 － －
2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships Tokyo, Japan － － Winner
2015 Table Tennis World Cup (Team) Dubai, UAE － － Winner
World Table Tennis Championships Suzhou, China Semi-finals Runner-up (with Zhou Yu) －
Table Tennis World Cup (Men's Singles) Halmstad, Sweden Runner-up － －
2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia － － Winner
Table Tennis World Cup (Men's Singles) Saarbrücken, Germany Winner － －
2017 World Table Tennis Championships Düsseldorf, GermanyRunner-up Winner (with Xu Xin)－
2018 Table Tennis World Cup (Team) London, England － － Winner
World Team Table Tennis Championships Halmstad, Sweden － － Winner
Table Tennis World Cup (Men's Singles) Paris, France Winner － －
2019 World Table Tennis Championships Budapest, Hungary Rd of 16 Semi-finals (with Ding Ning) －
Table Tennis World Cup (Team) Tokyo, Japan － － Winner
Table Tennis World Cup (Men's Singles) Chengdu, China Winner －
2020 Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan Runner-up － Winner
Asian Games, Asian Championships, Asian Cup
Year Event Location Type
Men's Singles Men's Doubles Men's Team Mixed Doubles
2013 Asian Table Tennis Championships Busan, South Korea Quarter-finals Semi-finals (with Chen Meng) Winner －
2014 Asian Cup Table Tennis Tournament Wuhan, China Runner-up － － －
Asian Games Incheon, South Korea Runner-up Runner-up (with Xu Xin) Winner －
2015 Asian Cup Table Tennis Tournament Jaipur, India Runner-up － － －
Asian Table Tennis Championships Pattaya, Thailand Winner Winner (with Xu Xin) Winner Winner (Mixed Doubles with Chen Meng)
2017 Asian Table Tennis Championships Wuxi, China Winner Winner (with Lin Gaoyuan) Winner －
Asian Cup Table Tennis Tournament Ahmedabad, India Runner-up － － －
2018 Asian Cup Table Tennis Tournament Yokohama, Japan Winner － － －
Asian Games Jakarta, Indonesia Winner － Winner －
2019 Asian Cup Table Tennis Tournament Yokohama, Japan Winner － － －
Asian Table Tennis Championships Yogyakarta, Indonesia Semi-finals Runner-up (with Xu Xin) Winner －
ITTF World Tour
Year Location Type
Men's Singles Men's Doubles Mixed Doubles
2013 Doha, Qatar Rd of 32 Rd of 16 －
Changchun, China Quarter-finals － －
Spała, Poland Winner Quarter-finals －
Bremen, Germany Winner Quarter-finals －
Stockholm, Sweden Runner-up Quarter-finals －
2014 Dubai, UAE* Semi-finals － －
Kuwait City, Kuwait Winner Quarter-finals －
Doha, Qatar Rd of 16 Semi-finals －
Chengdu, China Semi-finals Winner －
Stockholm, Sweden Winner Runner-up －
2015 Kuwait City, Kuwait Semi-finals Semi-finals －
Kobe, Japan Semi-finals Runner-up －
Chengdu, China Semi-finals Winner －
Warsaw, Poland Winner Rd of 16 －
Stockholm, Sweden Winner Runner-up －
Lisbon, Portugal* Runner-up － －
2016 Kuwait City, Kuwait Semi-finals Semi-finals －
Doha, Qatar Runner-up Winner －
Tokyo, Japan Winner Semi-finals －
Incheon, South Korea Semi-finals Semi-finals －
Chengdu, China Winner Runner-up －
Doha, Qatar* Runner-up － －
2017 Doha, Qatar Runner-up Quarter-finals －
Tokyo, Japan Runner-up Semi-finals －
Magdeburg, Germany Semi-finals Quarter-finals －
Stockholm, Sweden Runner-up Winner －
Astana, Kazakhstan* Winner － －
2018 Budapest, Hungary Winner Winner (with Yu Ziyang) －
Doha, Qatar Winner Winner (with Xu Xin) －
Shenzhen, China Runner-up Winner (with Lin Gaoyuan) －
Stockholm, Sweden Winner Rd of 16 (with Liang Jingkun) －
Linz, Austria Semi-finals Quarter-finals (with Wang Chuqin) －
Incheon, South Korea* Quarter-finals － －
2019 Budapest, Hungary Semi-finals Runner-up (with Lin Gaoyuan) －
Shenzhen, China Quarter-finals － Prelim Rd 2 (with Ding Ning)
Sapporo, Japan Semi-finals Winner (with Xu Xin) Semi-finals (with Ding Ning)
Busan, South Korea Quarter-finals Winner (with Xu Xin) －
Geelong, Australia Rd of 16 Semi-finals (with Xu Xin) －
Stockholm, Sweden Semi-finals Winner (with Xu Xin) －
Bremen, Germany Winner Semi-finals (with Lin Gaoyuan) －
Linz, Austria Winner Rd of 16 (with Wang Chuqin) －
Zhengzhou, China* Winner Winner (with Xu Xin) －

  *   ITTF World Tour Grand Finals

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Will Fan Zhendong be the Next Grand Slam Champion?". Team USA. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Athlete's Profile". 2014 Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on 3 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  3. ^ "Ranking progression". ittf.com. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Rankings". ittf.com. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  5. ^ Table Tennis FAN Zhendong – Tokyo 2020 Olympics Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  6. ^ "Fan Zhendong – Table Tennis' Rising Star". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  7. ^ "Fan Zhendong set on the 2017 World Championships". International Table Tennis Federation. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  8. ^ "April 2018 World Ranking Analysis: Fan Zhendong Tops the Chart". International Table Tennis Federation. 4 April 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
  9. ^ "I haven't reached my best: Fan". DOHA Stadium Plus. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  10. ^ "Fan Zhendong: I have not reached my best". International Table Tennis Federation. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  11. ^ "Fan Zhendong". TableTennis Reference. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  12. ^ "China Olympic Scrimmage Day 1 Singles Results – Edges and Nets". edgesandnets.com. 3 May 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  13. ^ "Fan Zhendong Ends Lin Shidong's Cinderalla Run At China Olympic Scrimmage". edgesandnets.com. 6 May 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  14. ^ "Zhou Qihao Wins China Olympic Scrimmage With 4–2 Upset Over Fan Zhendong". edgesandnets.com. 8 May 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  15. ^ "Out-of-Sorts Ma Long Upset By Xu Chenhao In Chinese Olympic Scrimmage Quarterfinals". edgesandnets.com. 29 May 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  16. ^ "Fan Zhendong and Wang Manyu Win Second Leg of China Olympic Scrimmage". edgesandnets.com. 31 May 2021. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  17. ^ "Fan Zhendong Recounts Chinese Olympic Scrimmage Title". edgesandnets.com. 10 July 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  18. ^ "Liu Guoliang Downplays Expectations and Reiterates Need For Mental Strength Heading Into Tokyo". edgesandnets.com. 24 June 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  19. ^ "Ma Long Defeats Fan Zhendong to Win Olympic Gold". edgesandnets.com. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  20. ^ "Lucky Fan Zhendong Saves Six Match Points to Defeat Ma Long at China National Games". edgesandnets.com. 21 September 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  21. ^ "Fan Zhendong Cruises to China National Games Men's Singles Gold". edgesandnets.com. 26 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  22. ^ "Timo Boll Talks About Chinese Table Tennis and More". edgesandnets.com. 5 September 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  23. ^ "How Armpit Space Affects The Ma Long vs Fan Zhendong Rivalry". edgesandnets.com. 8 September 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
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