under the age of 14,
Won four world championships,
Debut on the adult stage,
Defeat the world ranking top 10 players,
This sounds like the beginning of a table tennis devil story.
It's just that this girl is not from the national table tennis,
It is the sister of Japanese table tennis star Tomokazu Zhang
--Meihe Zhang.
On March 23, Zhang Benmei, who advanced to the women's singles quarterfinals of the WTT Regular Season Challenge in Doha, lost 1-3 to Zhang Rui, an active national from Hubei, and missed the semifinals. Although she has not been able to continue to play the dark horse, as the object of the Japanese Table Tennis Association's key training for generations, she is following the path her brother has walked, and she is gradually growing into an opponent that cannot be ignored in national table tennis.
He defeated Feng Tianwei in the international tournament for the first time
This is Zhang Benmeihe's second confrontation with Zhang Rui in two weeks. In the previous WTT Doha side match, the two met in the quarter-finals, which won 4-3 in seven sets. When they met again, although Zhang Benmeihe took the lead 11-6, Zhang Rui quickly won three consecutive sets to lock in the victory.
Although another loss to Zhang Rui did not qualify, the performance of 13-year-old Zhang Benmeihe in the past two weeks has been amazing enough.
This trip to Doha, Qatar, is Zhang Benmeihe's first time in the international arena of the senior group. Three months later, she turned 14, first swept the Chinese team Qin Yuxuan in the regional qualifying round, and then eliminated the 22-year-old national table tennis team member Qi Fei at 4-1 in the main tournament. Subsequently, she ushered in the first competition with Zhang Rui. In this game, Zhang Benmei and once led 2-1, and the outstanding backhand technology caused a lot of trouble for Zhang Rui, who was 12 years older than himself. After timely adjustment of tactics, Zhang Rui finally won a narrow victory.
Subsequently, the WTT Doha Challenge was unveiled. Zhang Benmeihe also broke through from the qualifiers to the main round, reaching the round of 16 for the second time. This time, her opponent is Singaporean's Feng Tianwei, who is now no. 9 in the world. After the game began, Zhang Benmeihe suppressed the opponent with a fast rhythm, twisting and pulling and backhand bursting in the stage, which made Feng Tianwei even more difficult to overcome. Despite the 35-year-old Singaporean veteran's brief fight, Cheung was firmly in control of the situation and eventually won 3-1.
This victory continued Zhang Benmeihe's strength in the youth arena and made this little girl "famous in one battle".
Grow up fast under the encouragement of your brother
In 2008, Zhang Benmeihe was born in Japan to a ping-pong family. Both parents Zhang Yu and Zhang Ling were former Sichuan players. His father, Zhang Yu, won the bronze medal in men's doubles at the 1997 National Games with Olympic champion Chen Longcan; his mother Zhang Ling, who fought alongside Deng Yaping and Qiao Hong, participated in the 1995 Tianjin World Table Tennis Championships and won the championship in the national championships many times. After retiring from the military, the couple went to Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, in 1998 to teach and settle down. When the little girl was born, her 5-year-old brother Zhang Benzhihe had been playing for three years. Influenced by the family, Zhang Benmeihe also picked up the racket.
Under the cultivation of his parents, Zhang Benzhihe won the national championship in the sixth grade and entered the elite academy specially designed by the Japanese Olympic Organizing Committee to cultivate Olympic talents. In March 2014, Zhang Yu and Zhang Benzhi and their siblings officially became Japanese nationals and changed their original "Zhang" surname to the Japanese surname "Zhang Ben", while her mother, Zhang Ling, still retained a Chinese passport.
Labeled as a "talented teenager", the Japan Table Tennis Association began to focus on the cultivation of Zhang Benzhihe, and the film crew of Japan's NHK Television station specially formulated a filming plan for him to "ping-pong prodigy" documentary, and Japan carried out an overwhelming all-round report on him.
In 2017, Zhang Benzhihe, who was carefully irrigated, first reached the final of the Indian Open at the beginning of the year, and became the youngest player to enter the singles final of the ITTF Tour at the age of 13 years and 237 days. At the World Table Tennis Championships in Düsseldorf in June, Zhang Benzhihe, who was less than 14 years old, became the youngest men's singles quarterfinalist in history.
In 2018, Zhang Benzhihe, who had just turned 15, broke into the vision of Chinese fans with explosive output. He has defeated Fan Zhendong and Ma Long, defeated Zhang Jike twice, reached the top of the Japan Open, and won the men's singles championship of the ITTF Tour Finals at the end of the year. And this childish teenager was locked in by the national table tennis and became the opponent of the national table tennis in Liu Guoliang's mouth in the next ten years.
Under the aura and encouragement of his brother Zhang Benzhihe, Zhang Benmeihe also created his own record with talent and hard work.
At the age of 7, she won the U8 age group at the Japan Championships. When her brother shined in 2018, only 10-year-old Zhang Benmeihe was selected for the Japanese national junior team with an impressive record of 31 wins and 1 loss, and won the women's singles championship in the East Asian Hope Cup the following year.
In 2019, 11-year-old Zhang Benmeihe played small at the Taicang Station of the International Table Tennis Federation Junior Tour, defeating two national table tennis players and making their debut. In 2020, she continued to compete in the junior arena, winning three gold medals in the U18 women's singles and U15 singles doubles in the Czech Republic with a record of 27 wins, and then Zhang Benmeihe won the U15 women's singles championship in Sweden. On the same day, his brother Zhang Benzhihe won the Hungarian Open championship.
At the World Youth Championships at the end of 2021, Zhang Benmeihe once again showed absolute dominance, winning all 17 games, only losing 7 innings, and pocketing all four championships of the U15 women's team, women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. On the field, Zhang Benmei and the game temperament that must be fought for every ball make people see the shadow of her brother from her.
This year, Hiromi Became a member of the Japanese national team and began to represent Japan in senior competitions.
Realizing the Olympic gold medal dream is not easy
The story of young fame has happened in Zhang Benzhihe and Zhang Benmeihe. Three years ago, the soaring Zhang Benzhi and hissing and roaring on the field caused displeasure from his teammates and the Japanese media. More than once, he boldly led the Japanese team to defeat the Chinese team and his Chinese identity, which once caused discomfort among domestic fans.
Previously, in the face of the impact of young forces from Japan, Liu Guoliang, then head coach of the Chinese table tennis team, provided a reasonable explanation for Zhang Benzhihe's growth trajectory: "Zhang Ben is very talented. Because he is in Japan, there are many opportunities to participate, and if they don't necessarily have such opportunities in China, they don't even have to participate. ”
Three years ago, domestic fans feared that Zhang Benzhihe, an adult, would become stronger and would become the number one rival of the Chinese team. However, under the special "care" of national table tennis, Zhang Benzhihe, who broke out prematurely, also seems to lack staying power. The Tokyo Olympics were out of the blues, the Houston World Table Tennis Championships singles "round trip", and the first round of the WTT Singapore Grand Slam men's singles was upset by American rising star Kanak.
Zhang Benmei and her brother's debut path are the same. Two years ago, she was already a hot rising star in Japan. The Japanese team, which always tried to defeat the national table tennis team, took her as a key training object and won a large number of opportunities to compete. At the Taicang station of the 2019 ITTF Youth Tour, Zhang Benmeihe participated in the U15 women's team competition, U13, U15 and U18. Over the course of three days, she played 22 singles matches, and on her final day she was tested in nine games. This rhythm of competition runs through to the present, and Zhang Benmeihe is named "triathlete" athlete.
Compared with his brother Zhang Benzhihe, the Japanese media believes that his younger sister Zhang Benmeihe is more talented. Some people even say that Zhang Benmeihe will surpass Ito Mimachi in the future. This is not unreasonable, and at a young age, she seems to be better than Ito in terms of physical fitness, and is likely to grow into a world-class singles player in the future.
Zhang Benmei once said in an interview with the Japanese media: "In the future, I will participate in the Olympic Games to win gold medals and stand at the top of the world!" As when her brother was a fledgling, her goal was an Olympic champion.
However, looking at the growth path of her brother from the outbreak to the bottleneck, as well as the high and low of the predecessor Ito Mimachi and Hirano Miyu, once Zhang Benmeihe is locked in by the national table tennis as the main opponent, if the individual is weak in succession, the road to the dream will encounter difficulties and obstacles like mountains and mountains.
Text/Hubei Daily reporter Ma Mingyu
Photo/ Weibo, Xinhua News Agency