Fan Zhendong (, pronounced ; born 22 January 1997) is a Chinese professional

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

player. After joining the Chinese national table tennis team in 2012 as the youngest member, he went on to become the youngest ITTF World Tour Champion and the youngest World Table Tennis Champion. From December 2013 to December 2024, Fan was ranked top five in the world according to the ITTF -- this eleven year streak is the longest in men's singles history. Fan is the reigning Olympic gold medallist in men's singles, with his victory at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

in Paris making him the 6th male player (and 11th player overall) to achieve a Grand Slam. He is also a two-time team event gold medallist, as well as a two-time World Champion and four-time World Cup champion in men's singles. Fan's 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 affectionately refer to him as "Little Fatty" (, meaning "chubby boy"). His continuous rise to becoming one of the top table tennis players in the world has garnered him a large fanbase worldwide, with over half a million followers on Chinese social media site

Weibo Weibo (), or Sina Weibo (), is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ac ...

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

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) is a public university in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 98 ...

Playing style and equipment

A right-handed shakehand-grip player, Fan plays an attacking style of table tennis using his explosive footwork and thunderous and well placed loops to finish off his opponents. Emerging as a 16-year-old wunderkind, Fan's playing style is often compared to his senior compatriot

Ma Long Ma Long ( zh, s=马龙, p=Mǎ Lóng; born 20 October 1988) is a Chinese professional table tennis player. He is a two-time Olympic champion, three-time World Champion, and three-time World Cup champion in men's singles. Widely regarded as the g ...

. In addition to being trained by national team coaches, he has been specially trained by both Wang Hao and Ma Lin. His encounters against senior players in the Chinese national team have drawn much speculation and anticipation. His fearlessness and technique allow him to challenge highly rated, experienced players, sometimes even beating top players in thrilling style. Fan raises his elbow higher on his strokes compared to some of his contemporaries such as

and Xu Xin, resulting in a stronger backhand-forehand transition game at the expense of a more vulnerable middle. In 2021,

Timo Boll Timo Boll (, ; born 8 March 1981) is a German former professional table tennis player. Boll is the most successful German table tennis player of all time, having won several medals at Olympic Games, world cups, and world championships. He was ra ...

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 Stiga Group (formerly GGP Spa) is a European manufacturer and distributor of lawnmowers and a wide range of motorized garden tools. It is headquartered in Castelfranco Veneto (Italy). Stiga has 13 subsidiaries in Europe (Austria, Italy, Ben ...

sponsored athlete. However, he changed to

Butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

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.

Career

2013

On 3 January 2013, the Chinese table tennis team went straight to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

for the first time Fan In the first stage of the competition, Fan who was only 16 years old, defeated many famous players and won an unexpected second place, thus becoming the biggest dark horse. From 15 to 19 January, in the second stage of the Chinese men's table tennis selection that went directly to Paris, Fan Zhendong finally achieved eighth place.

2014

On 22 March, in the men's singles final of the Asian Cup Table Tennis Tournament, he lost to Ma Long 3:4 and placed runner-up. On 5 May, the 52nd Team World Table Tennis Championships kicked off the men's team finals in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. In the end, the Chinese team defeated its opponent with a big score of 3-1 and won the men's team championship of this World Table Tennis Championships. Fan Zhendong also became the world champion by virtue of this competition, and won the world championship at the age of 17 years and 103 days, surpassing

, who won the world championship at the age of 17 years and 8 months; becoming the youngest world champion in the history of men's table tennis.

2015

In January, he won the Dubai World Cup men's team championship with Zhang Jike,

, Xu Xin and Fang Bo. On 28 July 2015, in the 13th round of the Table Tennis Super League men's competition, 18-year-old Fan Zhendong of the Bayi Team won another victory this round. So far, his personal winning rate is still 100%. Winning 24 games, Fan Zhendong broke the Super League record of 23 games won by

in 2012.

2016

In June, Fan Zhendong won the men's singles championship at the

ITTF World Tour The ITTF World Tour, known as the ITTF Pro Tour until 2011, was an annual series of table tennis tournaments introduced by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) in 1996. The tour includes events in seven categories: Men's and Women's Singl ...

Japan Open. It is worth mentioning that in the quarter-finals with French player

Simon Gauzy Simon Gauzy (born 25 October 1994) is a French table tennis player. He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international ...

, 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 Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

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

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 Truls Carl Eric Möregårdh (; born 16 February 2002) is a Swedish professional table tennis player. He took silver in the men's singles event at the 2024 Summer Olympics, as well as at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships. In 2018, he too ...

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 Liu Guoliang (; born January 10, 1976) is a retired Chinese people, Chinese table tennis player. He is the first Chinese male player to achieve a career grand slam of three majors (Olympic Games, World Cup, World Championships). He is considered ...

, Kong Linghui, Zhang Jike, and

. 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.

Achievements

Performance timeline

(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

References

External links