In addition to attracting public attention with their strong strength, players can also impress fans with their personal characteristics or “tricks”. “Sky Hook” and Japanese female bronze medalist Mima Ito at the Tokyo Olympics are also known as “mystery service” because they spin like a dance while serving. On the ping pong court, not only Mima Ito’s serving posture is amazing, but German Dimitrij Ovtcharov once made “Time Magazine’s Top 50 Inventions” list in 2008 with his unique “submarine service” ( Top 50 best inventions of the year).
Ovtcharov’s original “submarine serve”, the most powerful thing is not the power or speed of the serve, but the fact that he crouched at about table height, showing only half of his face, along with his usual backhand serve, as a result, opponents are often caught off guard and astounded. Recently, in the World Table Tennis Major League (WTT) World Cup Finals, he overturned and defeated current player Fan Zhendong and, at the same time, his special method of serving “confused” opponents returned once again. time in the center of attention, and we will present Him today Dimitrij Ovtcharov, who ranked 11th in the world in 2018, has ascended the throne of the world champion.
Ovtcharov was born in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine in the Soviet era in 1988. He emigrated to Germany with his family at the age of 4, because both parents were snooker coaches and his father won the individual championship of billiards in the Soviet Union, also represented the national team in 80 games, has experience in international competitions on the field, then was influenced by his parents and joined the billiard club as a child, receiving the guidance of the “player of his father’s national team from the age of 9.
At first he just started playing to earn bonuses, but Ovtcharov inherited his parents’ excellent genes and showed a complete talent for billiards at an early age. Also, he joined the club to hone his skills. In addition to learning solid basic skills, he is unique. The submarine service method also took shape during that time. Better he played, won the silver medal in singles at the 2002 European Youth Championships at just 14 years old, and three years later he won the gold medal in the same event, making him one of the leading players in German billiards and also playing in Europe. first name.
In 2007, he practiced a variety of different ways of serving, and even left the original club to join the number 1 team in European table tennis at the time. He also started playing in the senior group this year. Ovtcharov has the ability to attack and defend the backhand in one go. Also he is very strong in attack and his ability to control the landing of the ball is also quite good. He also has a delicate observation, which allows him to see the weakness of the opponent and conduct a series of violent attacks, it took him only a year and a half to bring the world ranking to 22.
2008 was Ovtcharov’s first Olympic experience. Although he finished in the top 16 in the men’s singles, the men’s team won the silver medal alongside his teammates and successfully won his first ever Olympic medal of his career. At the same time, he also attracted worldwide attention. And thanks to the special and varied service position, he won the titles of “Submarine” and “Variety Serve King”.
Since 2009, Ovtcharov’s achievements in international competitions have become more and more exceptional. He also earned the honor of entering the world top 15 for the first time in his career that year and never fell from 15th place in the world. The following year he joined a billiard club in Belgium. Although he only played here for a year, he became the central figure of the team that year and led the team to second place in the Europa League.
In the team battle of the 2011 World Cup, China once again won the championship, but it was a thrilling semi-final victory with Germany, which sent Ovtcharov to face Wang Hao, who was no. 1 team at the time, but Wang Hao was blown away by him.The cold defeat, in addition to ending Wang Hao’s unbeaten record of more than 7 consecutive years in singles, also made Ovtcharov famous again and has attracted global attention. At the London Olympics the following year, he played against Taiwan’s “godfather of billiards” Zhuang Zhiyuan in the match for the bronze medal, and eventually successfully won the first Olympic singles medal of his career, and also won the bronze medal in the men’s team, ending the second Olympics with 2 bronze medals.
Although the previous record was quite brilliant, but the pinnacle of his career is only just beginning. In the 2014 World Pool Team Championships held in Tokyo, the German team reached the final once again by meeting China. Ovtcharov played super standard in the second single and wiped out Zhang Jike in two sets. Although China won the gold medal in the end, but Ovtcharov’s singles strength is already at the highest level.
Not only did he defeat strong opponents several times in international competitions, but he also lost only 3 gold medals in the men’s team battle of the European Championships between 2007 and 2017. Although it was only in 2017 that he won his first medal gold medal at the men’s singles World Cup in his personal career, he also became the then briefly champion of the ball at the beginning of the following year with this gold medal, but unfortunately he injured his thigh and needed to six months to fully recover. Under the circumstances, he did not give up the opportunity to play and played on and off with injuries.
In recent years, he has been plagued with various injuries, so his performance has declined slightly.However, at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, he once again played in men’s singles and team events, and in the match for the bronze medal. in the masculine singular, he defeated our country’s “Kobayashi-kun” with his versatile serving methods. “Lin Yunru, who once again won the men’s Olympic bronze medal, also reported the touch lost due to injury.
Since he was born in Kiev, Ukraine, Ovtcharov also ended his 12-year partnership with the Russian club after the Russian-Ukrainian war broke out this year and entrusted his friends with taking his grandmother who lived in Kiev away from the battlefield, but 85-year-old grandmother was about to escape Ovtcharov fell in the middle of school and the recovery of his old grandmother was not ideal. Eventually, he died. His grandmother’s death also drove Ovtcharov to a minimum. Luckily, he quickly waved goodbye to the ebb, turned his pain and anger into strength, and focused on the ping pong court.
Recently, his injury has gradually improved and his performance has gradually recovered. In the World Cup finals, he once again put on a surprise show. He overturned ball king Fan Zhendong in the quarter-finals and moved on to the quarter-finals. Tomokazu Hakamoto was defeated, but his “veteran spirit” and his unique serving posture still left a deep impression on many people. It is believed that he will continue to deliver excellent results after returning from injury.
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