China's men's table tennis world champion, Fan Zhendong, is regaining his form and looking to claim the Olympic men's singles gold medal in Paris.
File photo of Fan Zhendong. /CFP
Fan took silver in singles three years ago in Tokyo and has claimed the last two singles world titles in Houston and Durban. He is also a four-time World Cup winner while achieving a three-peat. Fan struggled in the second half of last year and was bumped out of the top spot in the world rankings by his younger compatriot Wang Chuqin.
Earlier this month, Fan beat Wang at the WTT Champions event in Chongqing to win his first singles title of the season. He took on top contenders from South Korea and Japan before upsetting Wang, who will join him in representing China in the men's singles event in Paris.
Fan was once a prodigy on the Chinese team and became the youngest national champion at the age of 16. Now at 27, he has enjoyed a 26-month run as world No. 1 and won numerous titles, except for the Olympic gold.
"I feel like the Paris Olympics will be happening sooner than I anticipated. This is a good opportunity to show myself, and I also want to know if I have improved over the years compared to before. I'm interested to find out, so this is something I am really looking forward to," Fan said.