Fan Zhendong changes to Saarbrücken: Table tennis world star enthusiastic!

Fan Zhendong changes to Saarbrücken: Table tennis world star enthusiastic!

Saarbrücken, Deutschland - fan Zhendong, the table tennis Olympic champion and two-time world champion, will play for 1st FC Saarbrücken in the German Bundesliga next season. This exciting message was announced on the edge of the Champions League final tournament. FCS manager Nicolas Barroa described the obligation as a sporty milestone for the association and for table tennis in Germany and Europe.

fan Zhendong was the world ranking listener between 2018 and 2023. He secured the individual World Cup title in 2021 and 2023. He also won Olympic gold in Paris in 2024. Surprisingly, the athlete withdrew from the world rankings at the end of 2024 after a scandal with the World Association ITTF and the tournament organizer World Table Tennis (WTT), and since then he has not taken part in international tournaments. At the World Championships in Qatar, he was not in the contingent of the Chinese national team.

world championship title in double

In addition to his individual titles, Fan Zhendong also shone in doubles. Together with Wang Chuqin, he won the gold medal in the men's doubles at the World Championships in Durban. In the final, the two won 3-0 against the South Korean duo Lim Jonghoon and Jang Woojin and thus confirmed their dominance on international parquet. Both players have had an excellent course in the tournament before: Wang Chuqin defeated the triple world champion Ma Long with 4: 1 in the individual semi-final, while Fan Zhendong won his semi-finals against Liang Jingkun 4-2.

The Swedish defending champion Mattias Falck and Kristian Karlsson did not make it beyond the quarter -finals and were eliminated there. Wang Chuqin, who has already won the mixed title with Sun Yingsha, could even secure the triple in Durban, while the women's individual final took place between Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng.

Olympic success and development of table tennis

table tennis has been part of the Summer Olympics since 1988. After 1992, two bronze medals per category were awarded in the Olympic competitions. Due to the dominance of the Chinese athletes, the rules for the 2012 Olympics were adapted to limit the number of participants per country in the same competition. Zhendong's sporting success and his colleagues do not have no influence on this development.

In recent years, numerous changes in the Olympic orientation of table tennis have been made. For example, a mixed competition was added for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and for 2028 the double competitions for men and women will be reintroduced. The repeated participation of athletes such as Zhendong demonstrates the ongoing relevance and the sporting importance of table tennis at the international level.

The coming months promise to be exciting, especially with Fan Zhendong's return to the Bundesliga and his goal of further promoting table tennis sports both nationally and internationally.

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