"Pengfei, the opponent you met in the quarterfinals is the 'genius boy' Zhang Benjiuwang." Gu Zhizhong said with a smile.
Cui Pengfei curled his lips disdainfully: "I know him. The Japanese media has praised him very much. He is the youngest men's singles champion, the youngest junior world championship champion, and the youngest open quarter-finalist. His mother was previously He seems to be from our national table tennis team too, right?"
Gu Zhizhong nodded: "Zhang Benjiuwang's parents were both surnamed 'Zhang', and they changed their surname to 'Zhang Ben' when they arrived in Japan. His mother and I were once teammates, but at that time, his mother was not in our team either. That's awesome. After she retired and returned to her hometown, we never contacted her again, and later I heard that she had immigrated. It wasn't until a few years ago that the media reported the news about Harimoto Jiuwang that I found out that my teammate back then had gone to Japan.”
"Don't underestimate the enemy just because he's young. His playing style is very similar to yours, and Japan is interested in training him. He has participated in many international competitions over the years, and has also I have accumulated a lot of competition experience.”
As Gu Zhizhong spoke, he took out a document, flipped through it casually, and then said: "Not long ago, Harimoto Jiuwang defeated the Japanese team's 'first brother' Hideyoshi Hasegawa with a score of 4 to 2. Now Zhang Ben has been prosperous for a long time and can be said to be in the spotlight. Although he is only fifteen years old now, he does not pose much of a threat to us, but in four or five years, he may become our strong enemy."
When Gu Zhizhong said this, a trace of fierceness flashed in his eyes, and he lowered his voice and said: "So in tomorrow's game, I not only want you to win, but I also want you to win beautifully. I want you to destroy Jiuwang Zhang's confidence and let him see it in the future. When our national table tennis players come, they will be scared! They will be terrified! I want you to become his nightmare!"
"Don't worry, I'm good at this kind of thing!" Cui Pengfei also smiled. An athlete with such a personality like him obviously doesn't feel any guilt about beating children violently.
"Also, you have to correct your old problem of slow warming." Gu Zhizhong continued: "I have already told Dai Li to come in advance to help you warm up tomorrow so that you can get into the game state quickly."
…
Athletes' lounge.
Zhang Benjiuwang's hands began to tremble uncontrollably, and his mood was extremely excited.
Although Zhang Benjiuwang's fame is great, it is mostly "blown" by the media. It is like an unknown star. If he appears in the media every day, he will definitely be known to people. Another example is that some movie stars don’t have any good movies at all, and they haven’t been nominated for valuable awards, and they are even box-office poison. However, just by wearing strange clothes and walking on the red carpet of foreign film festivals a few times, they will be criticized. Uninformed foreigners thought he was an international movie star.
This is the case for Harimoto Jiuwang. He participated in several international competitions as the "youngest contestant". Although he was always beaten by the adult contestants, he still made a name for himself.
Of course, Harimoto Jiuwang still has some abilities. He was born in a sports family. His parents are both engaged in sports, especially his mother who was a former national player. Therefore, among his foreign peers, Harimoto Jiuwang is indeed the most outstanding. of.
Although Harimoto Jiuwang became famous at a young age, he has yet to compete with the world's top athletes. The so-called "world's top athletes" here are not "Japan's No. 1 Brother", "Germany's No. 1 Brother", or "Korea's No. 1 Brother". He is not an ordinary international tour champion, but a champion of heavyweight events such as the World Championships, World Cup, and Olympic Games. The championships of these heavyweight events have always been won by the national table tennis team.
In other words, Zhang Benjiuwang has not yet played against the main players of the national table tennis team. Today, Tomokazu Harimoto has completed dozens of easy difficulty dungeons, a dozen normal difficulty dungeons, and three to five hard difficulty dungeons. However, he has not experienced any truly hellish level difficulty dungeons.
Today, Zhang Benjiuwang will experience the first hell-level difficulty dungeon in his career. His opponent is the "big devil" Cui Pengfei.
Zhang Benjiuwang knew that even though Cui Pengfei was not as good as before due to injuries, he was still not something he could defeat. Failure in this hell-level dungeon challenge was inevitable.
"I will at least win one game from Cui Pengfei today!" Zhang Benjiuwang thought to himself.
Winning a game is not only the goal set by coach Kimura Chuichi for Harimoto Hisao, but also Harimoto's own goal.
Kimura Chuichi feels that winning the next game can help Harimoto Jiuwang grow and improve his self-confidence, but Harimoto Jiuwang hopes that he can clear his name by winning the next game.
Compared with other athletes, Harimoto Jiuwang, who became famous at a young age, has indeed suffered more doubts, disdain, and even unwarranted abuse. Too many people think that Harimoto Jiuwang is just a flash in the pan. And these have become the motivation for him to move forward.
Thinking of Cui Pengfei, Zhang Benjiuwang felt a very complicated feeling in his heart.
When Zhang Benjiuwang first entered elementary school, he had heard of Cui Pengfei's name. Later, when Cui Pengfei became the world's number one, Zhang Benjiuwang regarded Cui Pengfei as his idol, and even deliberately imitated Cui Pengfei in his playing style. .
Now, Zhang Benjiuwang is finally going to challenge Cui Pengfei directly.
"I have watched the videos of Cui Pengfei's every game. His slow start is my chance! I can win at least one game, or even two!" Zhang Benjiuwang thought confidently.
Cui Pengfei is always slow in playing games. This is something that the whole world knows. When he plays against the world's top table tennis players, the score will often be 3 to 1, and the game progress is also Cui Pengfei's. He lost the first game and defeated his opponent in the next three games to win.
Zhang Benjiuwang felt that if he also lost 3-1, it would at least prove that his strength has truly reached a world-class level and is not something that is touted by the media.
While Zhang Benjiuwang was full of expectations, in another dressing room, Cui Pengfei was doing a warm-up square dance to the sound of music...
…
The Austrian Open has entered the quarterfinals, and there are obviously many more spectators in the stands.
Cui Pengfei walked onto the field. On the surface, he looked similar to the situation in the previous games. His eyelids were still drooped, as if he hadn't woken up.
This scene fell into Zhang Benjiuwang's eyes, but he smelled a breath of "hope".
At the beginning of the game, Cui Pengfei took the lead in serving.
"For the first goal, I'm going to take advantage of Cui Pengfei's slow-heating characteristics and score a point first!" Zhang Benjiuwang has already decided on the strategy in his mind.