Wang hopes future China stars emerge after LA 2028 as table tennis powers wane
World No 1 Wang Chuqin is shouldering more responsibility than before and worries about a growing talent gap
With his own powers starting to wane, Chinese table tennis star Wang Chuqin hopes a new generation of players will emerge to take the country forward after the Los Angeles Olympics.
The world No 1 has not been his all-conquering self of late, and while his Shandong team won all six matches in the first phase of the Chinese Table Tennis Super League in Dalian, Wang, by his own admission, “didn’t win many”.
Defeats at the hands of Xu Haidong and Zhang Yudong, were followed by the need to come from behind to beat 19-year-old Li Tianyang and national team member Xiang Peng.
“I didn’t enjoy losing, and I didn’t enjoy winning as much either,” Wang said. “I wouldn’t really want to go through it all again if I had to. But if I were to be an athlete again, I would still want to be one – a member of the Chinese national table tennis team.
“Always approach your opponent with humility, accept a few poorly played shots, and try to think about the next one.”
With the dominance of China’s men declining, especially so since Olympic champion Fan Zhendong stepped away after winning gold in Paris, Wang has been carrying the team’s hopes, while also needing to prepare for doubles, something not required for the top men’s singles player in the build-up to the Games in Tokyo and the French capital.