(Chung's notes: This is a chapter in a series of articles on the history of Chinese table-tennis written by a guest contributor for cttin.net. The author is very familiar with the recent history of the sport, and shares his great insights with the readers. I have skipped his accounts of the women's team here. Earlier in the series he described the preparations leading to the 36th Worlds in great detail, and gave a captivating account of that perfect tournament from the Chinese perspective. This series is not completed yet.)
After the 36th (1981) Worlds, there was a change of scenery in the top echelons of table-tennis. The three great players of Hungary, Jonyer, Klampar and Gergely, started to show their ages and the weakness of their styles. The Yugoslavian and the Czechoslovakian teams also had lost their edges, but another European team, Poland, started to show promise. The two main players, Grubba and Kucharski, were strong players, and their team was ahead 4-1 in group play against the Hungarians in the 36th Worlds. They barely missed a huge upset when they lost 4-5. Grubba had beaten Guo Yuehua, and played a 2-winged looping style. He was steady with his loops, had an excellent backhand, and could attack well. Also worth mentioning is the French team that made a big improvement to advance to 5th place. France did not have a lot of talent, but under coach Xi Enting (ex-Chinese world champion), had done quite well, reaching 5th place in both the 35th and the 36th Worlds. In the latter Worlds, they beat Sweden 5-0, although they were still not in any position to challenge China.
The other emerging team is Sweden, with its cast of young stars. In the 1970's, the two main styles in Europe were the Hungarian/Yugoslavian style that emphasized spin, and the Swedish style that emphazied speed. The former was ferocious with its strong loops, but its speed was relatively weak. The latter style had great speed, but not as much power. Starting in the early '80's, Sweden had successfully merged these two styles to come up with a new style that was effective both close to the table and away from the table. This posed a great challenge to China. In the group play of the 36th Worlds, China played three shakehanders against Sweden, and had to fight hard for a close 5-3 win. Sweden had a strong group of players. Besides Bengtsson, it had Appelgren who beat Wang Huiyun 2-1 in group play at the 36th Worlds. And then there was Lindh, who eliminated Xie Saike in the first round of men's singles. Ulf Carlsson was also a strong player; he beat Guo Yuehua in the 1980 Scandinavian Open finals 3-2. After the 36th Worlds, China had realized that its main opponent was no longer Hungary, but Sweden.
In April, 1982, at the 13th European Championships, a relatively unknown 17-year-old Waldner defeated Bengtsson and Klampar to play Appelgren in the singles final, and was barely beaten 2-3. Waldner's strengths were his excellent serves with great variations in spin, his steady yet agressive play, and a keen awareness of strategy. Later that year Waldner beat Cheng Yinghua, Fan Changmao and Wang Huiyun in the French Open, to play against Jiang Jialiang in the finals. He lost to Jiang 1-3, but his presence added tremendously to the Swedish team which was now ready to regain its past glory.
After the 36th Worlds, the Chinese team made adjustments. The older players Li Zhensi and Wang Liang retired. Shi Jihao, because of his losing two sets against Hungary, was no longer part of the main team. China stepped up its efforts to develop the younger players, and among them Jiang Jialiang and Fan Changmao were the brightest prospects.
Jiang played the traditional pips-out penholder style. In 1979, the 16-year-old Jiang represented Guangdong province at the 4th National Games, beat Guo Yuehua, and attracted attention. He placed 6th in men's singles. At that time, there were a lot of excellent pips-out penholders on the national team, so Jiang was only a second-tiered player. In 1980, at the Double-Happiness international invitational, he played as a member of the 2nd team, and was overshadowed by the great Xie Saike who was at the peak of his career. At the end of 1981, Jiang, together with Teng Yi, Chen Xinhua and Fan Changmao visited Europe. In the Scandinavian Open, they did not play well, and only got 2nd place in teams. But in the singles, he learned from his group play experience, and defeated Appelgren and England's Douglas on route to capturing the title by beating Yugoslavia's Surbek in the finals.
At the end of 1982, Jiang toured Europe again. By this time, he was a mature player. Although he did not have great serves, he was very strong in initiating attacks after serves. He had great speed and an exceptional forehand attack. Watching him play was a great treat. In that tour he basically beat all the strong players in Europe, won the French Open, the Yugoslavian Open team title, and only lost to teammate Wang Huiyun in another final. His outstanding performance won him a much-coveted spot on the Worlds team roster.
For the 37th Worlds, the coaches had to make tough decisions to come up with the teams line-up. Besides Guo, Cai Zhenhua, Xie Saike and Jiang, there were three other players, Wang Huiyun, Fan Changmao and Chen Xinhua, fighting for the last spot. They all had their strengths. Wang, with his strong attacks, was very successful against Europeans, and often won in Europe. But in key world matches, he played a little too tight, and was not able to fully exploit his advantages. Fan was a typical pips-out penholder, with an excellent high-toss serve and a great serve-and-attack game. He beat Jonyer, Klampar and Gergely in his 1981 European tour. Chen Xinhua was a very steady chopper, and won the 1981 national championship. He raised the Chinese chopping style to a higher level. His predecessor Wang Liang was steady but lacked attacking skills, and Liang Geliang attacked well, but lacked steadiness. Chen successfully combined the strengths of those two players and invented his own unique style: fierce attacks and great defense. Because China had to worry about Japan also, and Fan had a great record against the top Japanese players, Fan was eventually chosen.
In a somewhat surprising announcement, Li Furong detailed the coaching changes made to the national team for the coming year. Cai is the main headcoach, and Lu Yuansheng is now the assistant main coach.
The new men's team head coach is Yin Xiao (sp?), who was the coach of Kong and Liu Guoliang from 1988 until about a year or so ago, and who left the national team to coach a professional league team this season. His expertise is developing new ideas or skills (e.g. Liu's backhand loop), and he is also good in communicating with players. He coached the junior team in 1986, and then became a coach of the main team in 1991.
The new women's team head coach is Li Xiaodong (sp?). He was coach of the Beijing team, and became the head coach of the national youth team in 1988. Since 1989, he has been a coach of the men's team, and is strong in developing fundamentals and all-round skills. The players he coached include Wang Tao, Yan Sen, and Wang Liqin.
Lu Lin is now the head coach of the 2nd women's team. Lu was a coach in the men's team, and had Liu Gouliang, Liu Guozheng and Yan Sen under his guidance this past year.
There is a report of the North American Team Championship in Sports Weekly. In the report, Chen said that the N.A.Teams was the last international competition for him. "Table tennis has been with me all my life, and I know very little about other careers or professions. I am very contented, and I have won an Olympic title. My next job will be in coaching", he said.
Click here to view some photos taken from a league match between Shanghai and Sichuan. From top: Chen Junji, Chen Jian, Ye Yueting (sp?), Wang Liqin, Xi Minjie, and Ge Jinhao. The first three are players of the Sichuan team, and the last three from Shanghai. Xi Minjie is the player who eliminated Chiang Peng-Lung at the University Games back in October.
Click here to view a photo of Saive's 10-year-old racket. Blade: Joola 5-ply. Forehand covering: Andro-Zenilh G (red), made in Germany, with a 2.3mm sponge and hardness >40. Backhand covering: Andro-Zenilh G (black), same thinkness and hardness as forehand.