When Was Zhang Jike Born? posted by Table Tennis
Born February 16, 1988, Zhang Jike is a popular table tennis player from China, who has won many medals and awards. Zhang was named after Zico, a famous soccer player from Brazil. At present Jike is the Olympic and World table tennis singles champion. At the 2012 London Olympics, he won his singles gold medal, and became the fourth player to manage a career grand slam. However, he is the only male player to reign simultaneously as champion in all the three competitions, which are the London Olympics 2012, World Cup 2011, and WTTC 2011. The grand slam was won by Zhang within 445 of his main title, making him the fastest player to do so ever.
Zhang has won gold medal in singles World Championships in 2011 at Rotterdam, and in 2013 at Paris. He won the singles silver medal in the World Cup in 2010 at Magdeburg and the gold in 2011 at Paris. In 2009 Asian Championships, Zhang won silver medal in the mixed doubles, doubles, and singles category, and a gold medal for the team. In the Asian Games, he has won Doubles gold medal in 2010 and 2014.
Zhang is known for his deceptive and unpredictable serves, and his reverse-pendulum short serve. He puts a sidespin in the serve, and coupled with his strong backhand flicks and very quick footwork, the opponent is often at a disadvantage. Zhang is also known to be very tough mentally, and is not known to make mistakes under pressure. He achieved the number one world ranking in 2012, but in 2014, he has dropped to the number five position. He has not managed any titles and has exited from world tours quite early. Liu Guoliang, his head coach, has criticized him for losing focus and not developing good technique. However, Zhang still managed to lead the Shandong team to qualify for the 2014 Super League Chinese Table Tennis Championship.
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