Faced with Simon Gauzy, the world number two Wang Chuqin had to work. The Chinese player finally won 4 sets at 2 but his celebration at the end of the match shows that the French Ainquiété. This proves that the level gap between the French is reduced to the Chinese. As in doubles, where it is the first time in 50 years that China has had no representatives in the last square.
“I have never seen a ditch as little hollow as in recent months. Even if the Chinese win, there are opportunities,” said Simon Gauzy, after his defeat in the second round in mixed in the face of a world's numbers. Since then, Gauzy has shown that anything was possible. He joined the knockout stages after dismissing Lin Gaoyuan, 16th in the world. “They have a reservoir. They still have good … If we can assimilate it to soldiers, maybe there is a brigade of game, but there is still the whole army,” sighed Nathanaël Molin, coach of the French team, after following the victory of Gauzy.
And he knows it better than anyone. The Chinese are well represented. The proof, the next round, the walk was a little too high for Gauzy. Stood in front of him, Wang Chuqin, seeded number two of these Worlds. Yet Gauzy worried him. The Frenchman led 2-0 before losing 4-2. “Wang Chuqin must have played his best ping to put me in great difficulty. I was already in difficulty in the first two sets, but it turned in my favor. I played really very well, super just. I think I made a very big match from start to finish. It's just that he is stratospheric. After a while, when he is like that, it's hard. You don't have to make any fault.”
“We see that he was hot”, Wang Chuqin fought against Gauzy
Faced with this type of player, the fault is unforgivable, a ball poorly placed and we pay him cash. “Beyond not making mistakes, you have to play hard, you have to play just, you have to play with a lot of effect in good investments. Sometimes I play very hard, but in the racket, it's not good enough. Afterwards, I'm not going to be hard with me, even today, because I think it was still top, top, top”, smiles. The big difference for some time is that French players make the Chinese doubt. When they arrive at the table, they now know that the Blues can beat them. “Wang Chuqin was tense at the start of the match. We can see his joy at the end, he exteriorized well, which is not often his case. Perhaps often on the finals, but not from the eighth of the finals. We see that he was hot,” said Aurélien Puel, coach of the Blues.
Of its five representatives in the Table de Simple, China has three more. Lin Shidong, the world number one, only one set lost since the start of the competition, Liang Jingkun, jostled in the round of 16 and therefore Wang Cchuqin. But a page is turning. Europe and in particular France, thanks to Lebrun and Simon Gauzy, find an important place in the world hierarchy. “There was already the time of Jean-Philippe Gatien, where the Europeans managed to hang the Chinese. Afterwards, they took over a little bit. And there, I think we come back strong. I hope we will continue to get closer and in a while, being able to beat them in a big competition,” smiles Puel.
After the quarter-final elimination of the double of the Lin Shidong-Lin Gaoyuan pair, against Taiwanese, it is the first time in 50 years that a Chinese representative has not qualified for the last square of world championships. A sign that these Worlds put an end to an over-domination of China in men. “Everyone has the objective of being able to beat, it's normal,” concludes Aurélien Puel.
