Fan Zhendong

Fan Zhendong (, pronounced ; born 22 January 1997) is a Chinese professional table tennis player. He is the reigning Olympic gold medallist in men's singles, with his victory at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris making him the 6th male player (and 11th player overall) to achieve a Grand Slam. He is also a two-time World Champion and four-time World Cup champion in men's singles.

Fan Zhendong was the youngest ITTF World Tour Champion, a record that was later surpassed by Tomokazu Harimoto. His attacking style of play involves explosive footwork and powerful loops on both forehand and backhand wings. His thick-set build has led fans and commentators to refer to him as "Little Fatty" .

Fan is studying at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Early life Fan Zhendong was born in Guangzhou, China on 22 February 1997. His father, a native of Qidong County, Hunan, was a graduate of the South China University of Technology and settled in Guangzhou, along with his wife, where he worked for a state-owned enterprise in the city. At the age of five, Fan enrolled in a table tennis training class at the Haizhu District Children's Palace, where he trained under coaches Yang Biyu and Wen Haoguang. While attending Tongfu Middle Road No. 1 Primary School in Haizhu District, he joined the school's table tennis team with the support of his parents and qualified for a tuition fee reduction.

In 2004, he represented the Haizhu District Children's Palace at the "Xinmiao Cup" Youth Table Tennis Tournament, where he won first place in the boys' Group A division. In 2006, he was selected to join Weilun Sports School (now Guangzhou Sports Polytechnic). In 2008, at the age of 11, Fan represented Guangzhou in provincial-level competitions in Guangdong, winning both the team and doubles championships. The same year, he was selected by the People's Liberation Army sports team and finished sixth in an internal round-robin tournament.

Career 2011 In the 2011 National Table Tennis Championships, Fan Zhendong participated in the men's singles competition for the first time, but was defeated by Lai Jiaxin and stopped in the first round. At the end of the same year, he participated in the training camp of the national second team and provincial and municipal teams, and won first place in the round-robin competition.

In December 2012, Fan participated in the World Youth Table Tennis Championships and won the men's team, men's singles and mixed doubles championships, and also won the men's doubles runner-up. It is worth mentioning that in the quarter-finals with French player Simon Gauzy, Fan Zhendong hit a "magic save". This "magic save" not only made Fan Zhendong's popularity soar, but also won the ITTF Star Awards title of "Star Point of the Year".

2017 On 8 March, in the final round of the World Table Tennis Championships in Düsseldorf held in Shenzhen, Fan Zhendong defeated Xu Xin 2-0, ranking first with 9 wins and 2 losses, and won the first Düsseldorf title. On 12 April, he won the men's team championship at the Asian Table Tennis Championships.

2018 In the early morning of 22 January 2018, the Hungarian Open, the first ITTF tournament in 2018, decided on four championships, all of which were won by China Table Tennis Federation. Fan Zhendong defeated another Chinese player Wang Chuqin 4-1 in the men's singles final and won the championship.

2019 On 3 March 2019, Fan Zhendong won all 11 matches in the 2019 Direct Tournament and received the qualification for singles participation as the first seed in the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships, held in Budapest. Fan was knocked out in the fourth round by compatriot Liang Jingkun.

2020 On 15 November 2020, he defeated Ma Long 4-3 in the men's singles final of the 2020 Men's Table Tennis World Cup and won the championship for the fourth time. On 22 November, in the men's singles final of the 2020 ITTF Finals, Fan Zhendong lost to Ma Long 1-4 and won the runner-up.

2021 Fan Zhendong after winning the 2024 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan, China News Service. In May, Fan played in the Chinese Olympic Scrimmages. He won all his group matches 3–0 and defeated 16-year-old break-out star Lin Shidong, who defeated Xu Xin in the group stage, 4–2 in the quarter-finals. Because of Lin's similarity to Fan, he received the nickname "Little Little Fatty" by Chinese netizens. Fan defeated Wang Chuqin in the semi-finals, but lost to the dark horse champion Zhou Qihao in the finals. Fan was selected alongside Ma Long to represent China in the men's singles event at the Tokyo Olympics. Fan won the second leg of the Chinese Olympic Scrimmage, coming back from down 8–4 and 3–1 in games to defeat Xu Xin in the finals. Fan noted that his selection onto the Olympic team helped him focus better on his training and play better in the second leg compared to the first leg. Zhou again upset Fan in a closed-door scrimmage in June.

Although Ma Long called Fan the favorite before their Olympic finals match-up, Ma ended up upsetting Fan 4-2 in the Olympic finals, giving Ma the gold medal and Fan the silver. Despite the loss, Fan Zhendong still showed class, acknowledging Ma Long's control of the match and recognizing his own missed opportunities. When asked about Ma Long's place in history, Fan acknowledged that he is the greatest in their generation.

In September, Fan saved six match points to beat Ma Long in the fifth in the finals of the team event at the China National Games. Fan's win over Ma delivered Team Guangdong the gold medal. Fan Zhendong also won the gold in the men's singles event.

2023 Fan won five titles in 2023, including double gold at both the Singapore Smash and the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships, where he won the men's singles and doubles competition in both events. Fan won the ITTF "Male Player of the Year" award later that year, with an impressive 81% singles winning rate and reaching seven finals.

2024 Fan Zhendong helped the Chinese men's team secure their 11th consecutive World Team Championship title in 2024. He went undefeated in all 8 matches he played during the tournament, including two crucial wins in the 3–2 semifinal victory over South Korea and one win in the final against France.

Fan defeated Sweden's Truls Möregårdh 4–1 to win his first individual Olympic gold medal at Paris 2024 on Sunday, 4 August. His victory marked Fan's completion of a career Grand Slam, having now secured singles titles at the World Championships, World Cup, and Olympics. He becomes the sixth man to achieve this feat after Jan-Ove Waldner, Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui, Zhang Jike, and Ma Long. On 9 August, in the men's team event, Fan helped China win the gold medal with a 3–0 (3–2, 3–2, 3–2) victory over Sweden in the final.

In December 2024, Fan Zhendong formally signed a notification declaring retirement from all events sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and announced his withdrawal from the world rankings.

2025

In November, Fan Zhendong won the 2025 National Games of China men's singles gold medal with a 4-1 over Lin Shidong in the finals, and a silver medal in the men's team event for Team Shanghai with a 1-3 loss against Team Beijing in the finals.

Playing style and equipment

A right-handed shakehand-grip player, Fan is known for an attacking style of play that focuses on his explosive footwork and powerful topspin shots to finish off his opponents. After emerging as a 16-year-old wunderkind, his style is often compared to fellow Chinese player and senior compatriot Ma Long. In addition to training with the Chinese national team coaches, he also trained with former world champions Wang Hao and Ma Lin. His matches against senior players in the Chinese national team have attracted significant attention, and he achieved victories against highly rated, experienced players from early in his career.

Fan raises his elbow higher on his strokes compared to some of his contemporaries such as Ma Long and Xu Xin, resulting in a stronger backhand-forehand transition game at the expense of a more vulnerable middle. In 2021, Timo Boll stated that he felt that he and Fan played a similar style except that Fan was better. Boll did not elaborate further.

Fan was a Stiga sponsored athlete. However, he changed to Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC, he uses a black DHS Hurricane 3 neo National Blue Sponge for forehand and a Red Tenergy 05 for backhand. During the 2019 world table tennis championships, he changed to the new Butterfly Dignics 05 on his backhand that had just been released on 1 April 2019. Butterfly announced its signing of Fan Zhendong on 1 November 2021.

Achievements Performance timeline +KeyWFSFQF#R (W) won; (F) finalist; (SF) semi-finalist; (QF) quarter-finalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1(S) singles event; (MD) men's doubles event; (XD) mixed doubles event; (T) team event

Finals Men's singles

Men's doubles

Mixed doubles

Awards In 2016, Fan won the ITTF Star Point Award, and he was nominated for the Best Male Star Award every year between 2013 and 2016.

In 2025, Fan won the Big Ben Award.