world championship 2011 final men: Zhang Jike vs Wang Hao

Even though you may not like the Chinese team, you almost have to watch the table tennis world championship 2011 final men when it is in hd brought to us by our good friend ttcountenance a few months ago.
A key topic brought up was not just the play but thoughts about personality and emotion; self control of celebrating a win.

Who in 2008, beat Wang Liqin, Ma lin and Wang Hao consecutively, in their primes, in chinese national championship? (although some would argue that they just came back from Olympics and didnt care about national levels, also, they were not adjusted to the new water glue)
Who at the age of 23, beat Joo Se Hyuk 4-0, wang liqin 4-2, Timo Boll 4-2, Wang Hao 4-2 at the 2011 WTTC? (although some would find excuses saying the umpire stuffed up Wang's rubber which needed to be reglued just before the start of the match)
What do you get when you add table tennis + the Hulk?

The answer of course = Zhang Jike! This is how you should win a title, you beat the old champion, the best of the rest, and then in the final, take the crown right off the current champion's head.

We all know how the world of table tennis is dominated by the super trained Chinese. This winner is double national champion of China and he won the World table tennis championship the first time he tried. Zhang Jike is the only player who has won the World table tennis championship, in his first attempt in men singles after Kong Linghui did 16 yrs ago. There is an article that said that Zhang Jike (pronounced "Jee-kuh") was "a stallion the chinese coaches often found difficult to control". Zhang jike is very young and he can't control himself that well. I think Zhang Jike has shown the other people that Chinese does have emotion. Even, wang liqin when he was younger, said ''cho'' at every point even net and edge. Jike topped Wang Hao's animalistic shouts of celebration in Yokohama 2009. They may prove that the chinese can still be great without their strict, inhumane culture. I doubt they will get kicked off the team for such behaviour, as long as they WIN. It should not be forgotten that most sports have banned taking off jerseys and penalise players for doing so. Kobe Bryant also comes to mind in relation to his attitude and results.

Jike is usually a shy and very quiet guy. This made the rebellious act of ripping off his shirt, a very extreme act never seen before and will not be forgotten ever, even more hard to believe. It will be one of those replayed video sequences until the end of time for table tennis lovers. The women would have loved it and might even wanted him to take off his shorts and his underwear too!

Some say there is nothing wrong with celebrating, especially when you have just won the World Championship Title. It is not a time to sit there, smile to people and act all humble. He has something to boast about. All sports need more personality from their athletes, instead of always having the same old-boring-acted-humilty nowadays.

Others say he is arrogant and should be like Timo boll, who is a typical example of a great sportsman who shows emotions but at the same time doesn't act like a clown. However, Boll is not the only European around. Could we say there is a difference between the negative expressed emotion of the European players and positive emotion of the Chinese? We are used to seeing a lot of European losers throw their racket around, argue with the empire and you could check what Michael Maze did, and especially Steger in this World table tennis championship.

What was different about these men in 2011? Why did Jike beat Wang Hao in this table tennis world championship final?
It partly came down to physical fitness. No matter how little time Zhang Jike gets, every hit is so incredibly balanced with clean technique and is always power everywhere from topspin to counter topsin and literally shown power when he took off his shirt. Jike's game is complete, his reverse serve is just awesome. The serve really did it for Zhang. Wang Hao wasn't able to attack his backspin serve like he did Ma Long's and it made a lot of difference. Zhang has a very good regular backspin serve, but his reverse pendulum serve is just other worldly. This can also be seen with how much trouble Wang Liqin with Jike's serve also. He controlled the game and Wang was the one who had to run around to try to get to the ball. Zhang even played through Wang Hao's multiple lucky net ball shots which he must have sold his sole to the devil for, and a few of his own errors.

All in all, having said many things here, the part that will not be forgotten is the shirt.

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