It's more than a sensation, it's an earthquake. To everyone's amazement, the world number 1 in table tennis, Wang Chuqin, was eliminated this Wednesday morning from the Olympic Games, in the round of 16 stage, beaten by the Swede Truls Moregard. A premature ejection from the individual tournament was totally unforeseen, as the 24-year-old Chinese player was considered the ultra-favorite for the gold medal. “It really is a small earthquake in the world of ping. Wang Chuqin has dominated the discipline for several months and even years. It’s all the more surprising since Truls was going through a difficult period, with very few victories,” confides Vincent Avril, the coach of the Lebrun brothers within the Nîmes Montpellier table tennis Alliance.
To be continued Tennis program Tennis results The world number 1 was in the group of Alexis Lebrun who is playing his round of 16 this afternoon. After his winning match point, Truls Moregard appeared in complete disbelief. Staring in amazement, he collapsed to the ground, as if incapable of carrying out the immense feat he had just accomplished. His victory 4 sets to 2 (12-10, 11-7, 5-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6) is however uncontested. “I didn't find Wang Chuqin very good but, even when he is not at his best, he is very strong so we must not take away the credit from Truls,” warns Vincent Avril who attended this event behind his screen.
“I had almost never taken a set against Wang so it’s crazy to win here at the Olympic Games,” says Truls Moregard, 26th player in the world and seeded No. 19 in the tournament. “I don’t know why I had such a good feeling. I could beat him today. I didn't get the impression that Wang was on his best day,” continued the 22-year-old who had climbed to 5th place in the world in 2022 before falling several steps back.
His broken racket On Tuesday, following his victory in the mixed doubles tournament, Wang Chuqin had the inconvenience of seeing his racket broken in a stampede caused by photographers. An incident that even brought tears to his eyes. “At that moment I lost control of my emotions a little. I didn't understand how photographers could have done that, he explained afterwards. I can't do anything now. I think it will be possible to play well with my spare racket. » “The players of course have several rackets but, given his reaction, we can imagine that this was important for him,” says Vincent Avril.
Truls Moregard brushes aside the argument. “It has absolutely no influence. I think you need to have ten rackets and at least 500 rubbers here so it doesn't matter if you lose your racket. For example, I don't know if I'm playing with my first or my third racket, so it really doesn't matter,” says the hero of the day. “It had no influence on the match,” admits Wang Chuqin. It's just that my opponent played really, really well. » The Chinese number 1 was in Alexis Lebrun's part of the table. But before rejoicing, the eldest of the siblings will already have to get rid of the formidable Brazilian Hugo Calderano, seeded No. 4, this Wednesday at 4 p.m. A meeting he approaches as the outsider.
The emotional elevator. Tuesday, alongside Yingsha Sun, Wang Chuqin won the mixed doubles, the first Olympic title in the career of the Chinese prodigy, only 24 years old. And this Wednesday, the world number 1 was eliminated in singles by the Swede Truls Moregard (12-10, 11-7, 5-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6), the 26th in the world who did not he himself couldn't believe the feat he had just accomplished. A defeat which is already causing a lot of talk in China due to the incident that occurred the day before...
Indeed, while posing alongside his mixed doubles partner after his won final, Wang Chuqin had the misfortune of seeing his racket accidentally broken by a photographer. An awkwardness which caused his incomprehension tinged with anger when he came to respond to the journalists: “ I lost control of my emotions a little at the time, I didn’t understand how a photographer could have done that,” he blurted out. , disillusioned. "I can't do anything now, I hope I can play with my spare racket ." Which was obviously the case since he didn't come to France with just one racket.
Except that obviously, the Chinese was very attached to his traditional working tool with which he had all his technical benchmarks, and this incident inevitably played a role in his way of starting his match this Wednesday, which led him to lose the first two sets. Even though he reacted well, clearly his confidence had just gone and the Swede knew how to take advantage of it admirably. A thunderclap in the men's draw because since the 2004 Games, all the finals had been 100% Chinese. Which will not be the case since only Fan Zhendong remains in the race. Present in his half of the table and opposed this afternoon to the Brazilian Hugo Calderano (6th in the world), will Alexis Lebrun be able to take advantage of it?
Israel's Olympic soccer team was eliminated tonight (Tuesday) from the rest of the tournament after a 1:0 loss to the Japanese team in the third and final round of Group D. Mao Hsuya scored the only goal of the game in the 90th minute and Guy Luzon and his players finished the tournament with one point out of a possible nine. In order to reach the quarterfinals, where Egypt was already waiting, Israel needed a victory over Japan and a draw in the parallel match between Paraguay and Mali. But she did not succeed and finished last in the house.
Israel started the game well and the first 20 minutes were their best in the tournament. Elad Madmon, Liel Abda and Oskar Gloch found loopholes in the Japanese area and managed to get into situations, the back worked well - but then something faded in the Israeli game until the teams went to the break. Guy Luzon started the second half with a double substitution; Dor Turgeman and Einau separated instead of Elad Madmon and Ido Shahar, and later he added an offensive change when he introduced Adi Yona at the expense of Eitan Azoulai. Israel was once again superior in the first 15-20 minutes, after a bit it slowed down and towards the end it reached two good situations that were missed by Liel Abda and Yona. The players in blue went forward with more and more players, the defense remained exposed and in the 90th minute they conceded. The Israeli home: 1. Japan team - 9 points, 0:7 goals 2. Paraguay team - 6 points, 7:5 goals 3. Mali team - 1 point, 3:1 goals 4. Israel team - 1 point, 6:3 gates.
