This evening, the final of the Ping Pong Super League concluded with Shandong Luneng winning the women's team championship and Shandong Weiqiao securing the men's team title. However, the biggest winner was not the two clubs from Shandong but Liu Guoliang, the head of the national table tennis team. His two protégés, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, both delivered outstanding performances in the competition, bringing honor to Liu Guoliang and gradually dissipating the controversy surrounding Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng's withdrawal.
Prior to the final stage of this Ping Pong Super League, two Olympic heroes, Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng, issued a statement announcing their forced withdrawal from international rankings. This incident generated immense public pressure, making Liu Guoliang, the head of the national table tennis team, the target of intense criticism. In fact, the forced withdrawal of Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng from international rankings marked their departure from the national team, which is quite rare in the history of the national table tennis team. In comparison, since the women's team has many renowned players, the impact of Chen Meng's withdrawal was not as significant. The men's team, however, was already experiencing a shortage of talent, and Fan Zhendong, being in his prime, raised concerns about the future competitiveness of the men's team.
In such circumstances, the performance of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, Liu Guoliang's two protégés, during the Ping Pong Super League finals drew significant attention. Both are currently the most popular and sought-after national table tennis players by fans, and they are also representatives of Liu Guoliang's commercialization of the national table tennis team. They had previously faced some controversies. When Liu Guoliang found himself at the center of public scrutiny, if these two could bring honor to the national table tennis team, it would, to some extent, alleviate the pressure on Liu Guoliang.
Fortunately, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha performed admirably in the Ping Pong Super League finals. Especially Wang Chuqin, whose match against Fan Zhendong largely determined the evaluation of whether Liu Guoliang's decision was correct. If Wang Chuqin, ranked first in the world, lost to Fan Zhendong, who had distanced himself from the national table tennis team, the criticism of Liu Guoliang's decision would reach new heights. Liu Guoliang understood the importance of this battle and even sent national table tennis coach Xiao Zhan to provide special training for Wang Chuqin, studying how to defeat Fan Zhendong. Ultimately, Wang Chuqin withstood the pressure and defeated Fan Zhendong, successfully relieving Liu Guoliang of pressure. Additionally, in the finals, Wang Chuqin also defeated Lin Shidong, proving the national table tennis team's foresight in selecting him as the top male player, and temporarily preventing people from missing Fan Zhendong.
Sun Yingsha also shone brightly. After recovering from a period of injury, she had yet to regain her form and was eliminated in the first round of the WTT year-end finals. In the mixed team World Cup, the main singles player for the women's team became Wang Manyu. Consequently, whether Sun Yingsha could maintain her position as the top female player became a topic of heated discussion. Wang Manyu won consecutive titles at the German Open and the WTT year-end finals, emerging as the new leader, and with Chen Meng's former coach Sun Xun becoming her head coach, she gained an advantage, posing a significant threat to Sun Yingsha. In this Ping Pong Super League confrontation, Sun Yingsha staged a comeback victory over Wang Manyu and also defeated Qian Tianyi, who was rapidly rising, demonstrating her world-class abilities.
The controversy sparked by Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng was mitigated when the national table tennis team released an official statement and Liu Guoliang gave a public interview, adopting a slightly compromising approach to cool down the situation. People shifted their focus from questioning the national table tennis team's decisions, the WTT regulations, and Liu Guoliang's judgments to the competitions themselves. Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha's timely excellent performances temporarily allayed doubts about the national table tennis team's strength, naturally easing the pressure on Liu Guoliang.