The Y2Klub: Start Small, Aim Big, Xu Haidong

Photo: Table Tennis World
With less than a month to go before the 2017 World Junior Championships, CTTA announced the the list of Chinese athletes that will be going to Riva del Garda, Italy in late-November. Top juniors from China, Wang Chuqin, Xue Fei, Xu Haidong, Niu Guankai, Wang Manyu, Sun Yingsha, Shi Xunyao and Qian Tianyi, will be attending the championships. This week's Y2Klub introduces, Xu Haidong, a 17-year-old penholder that you should keep an eye on.



It's never too young to start playing table tennis. Both Xu Haidong's grandfather and father are keen on table tennis so as a baby Xu Haidong played table tennis on the arms of his father. As he grew older, he took table tennis classes in sport school in Liaoning. He made to the Liaoning provincial team in 2011 and advanced to the national team in 2016 after delivering an outstanding performance in the national team selection camp.

Just a few months making to the national team, Xu Haidong represented China to compete in various junior competitions and won the junior bots' singles champion at the 2016 Asian Junior and Cadet Championships after defeating his teammate Yu Heyi 4-2 in the finals. However a devastating defeat in the team semifinals at the 2016 World Junior Championships had stunned him and Team China. (Click here to watch the match between Xu Haidong and Cho Seungmin in the team semifinals). 

He did not earn the spot to participate in 2017 China Junior&Cadet Open nor did Asian Junior Championships in the first half of 2017 but put up some decent results in the second half of the year. He ended up second in the Hong Kong Junior & Cadet Open losing to his teammate Yang Shuo 4-2 in the finals. Whereas domestically, he also stood out in the internal B Team competition and had a chance to compete in the promotion competition. Despite he missed the chance of entering the A Team by a fraction of a point, his outstanding performance in national competitions has earned him a spot to compete in the upcoming World Junior Championships.



Xu Haidong's idol is Wang Hao but national team coaches have high hopes on him that he could gather the strength of Wang Hao and Ma Lin and achieve better results in the upcoming competitions.

 Source: Table Tennis World


Competitive Highlights
2016 China Junior & Cadet Open Junior Boys' Singles Runner-up
2016 Asian Junior and Cadet Championships Junior Boys' Singles Champion
2016 Chinese Table Tennis A-League (Division 1) Men's Singles Champion
2016 World Junior Championships Mixed Doubles Bronze Medal
2017 Hong Kong Junior & Cadet Open Junior Boys' Singles Runner-up
2017 Chinese Table Tennis A-League (Division 1) Men's Singles Champion
2017 Chinese Junior National Championships Men's Singles Runner-up

 Up next, we are going to do "Get To Know Each CTTSL Team". Let us know whether you would like a long article with all the info of each team or daily updated short articles with an introduction of one team per article. Stay tuned and make comments in "What do you like about this blog" so that we can make articles that you would love to read.
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3 comments:

  1. Stef13 November 2017 at 05:55

    Hi Table Tennis Fan

    Great idea about a CTTSL Teams article series. I think it would be fine with daily short articles, but either way is alright - as long as we get to know more about the teams :-)

    Also, is there any chance of you writing a follow up article on the German and Swedish Opens?

    I would imagine that the German Open results has received some media attention in China? It would be interesting to hear some reactions from the CNT players/coaches and the media?

    Kind regards
    Stef

    ReplyDelete
  2. Table Tennis Fan__The Penholder18 November 2017 at 11:56

    Hi Stef,

    I would really want to make an article about the teams but it seems that there are still some minor changes in the line-up. That's why I have not post that article yet.

    Since you ask about it, I might make a follow up article for German and Swedish Open. This may be released after the CTTSL articles.

    Just to make it clear that my follow-up articles do not represent media in China. They are merely my thoughts about the tournaments. As far as I know some Chinese media said the Chinese men's team does not have a significant dominance in table tennis while some fuzzed about using different brands of table tennis balls in domestic competitions. I think whatever the reasons are, the Chinese team should reflect on the competitions and work hard this winter to maintain their dominance.

    Thanks for your comment and I hope to hear more from you.

    Regards,
    Table Tennis Fan

    ReplyDelete
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