Zhang Jike

Zhang Jike (born 16 February 1988) is a retired Chinese table tennis player.

On February 16, 1988, Zhang was born in Qingdao, Shandong Province to Zhang Chuanming (张传铭) and Xu Xiying (徐锡英).

His father is a table-tennis coach.

He was named after the Brazilian soccer coach Zico.

The first three are Jan-Ove Waldner (in 1992), Liu Guoliang (in 1999), and Kong Linghui (in 2000).

Zhang won the Grand Slam in only 445 days.

According to his father, the first time Zhang played table-tennis was on March 5, 1992, aged 4.

He won, consecutively, first WTTC 2011, then World Cup 2011, and then London Olympics 2012, which made him the fastest player ever to win a Grand Slam.

In 2011, Zhang first played in the singles event at the WTTC and won the gold medal by defeating Joo-Sae Hyuk, Wang Liqin, Timo Boll and Wang Hao, making an epic celebration by ripping his shirt after winning the final.

After a few months, he won the 2011 World Cup in Paris by defeating Joo-Sae Hyuk 4–1, Wang Hao 4–2 in the final.

After the final point, he took off his shirt and threw it to the audience and thanked them for their support.

Zhang became the fourth male player in the history of table tennis to achieve a career Grand Slam when he won gold in men's singles at the Olympic games in London 2012.

During the Olympic Games in London 2012, Zhang played a terrific match against European legend Vladimir Samsonov where he was 2-3 down, but still managed to win the match.

In the semi-final, he defeated Dimitrij Ovtcharov 4–1.

In the final he met his teammate Wang Hao again.

But this time Zhang proved he was too strong and dominated Wang Hao.

By defeating Wang Hao, he achieved a career Grand Slam.

Zhang Jike also won the gold medal in the team event but on the way lost to Timo Boll in the semi-final against Germany.

Later that year he won against Ma Long 4–3 in final of the Slovakia Open.

After the first Grand Slam, he won WTTC 2013 and World Cup 2014.

In 2013, he had a bad start after losing to Chen Chien-an at the Asian Games.

Later at the WTTC, he once again proved he was undefeatable.

He won the Gold Medal beating Fan Zhendong, Robert Gardos, Gustavo Tsuboi, Patrick Baum, Xu Xin and Wang Hao in the finals.

This time Zhang jumped over the barriers and ran towards his parents.

The same year, he defeated Ma Long 4–1 in the final of the Kuwait Open.

In 2014 he won the World Cup in Düsseldorf/Germany by defeating Timo Boll in the semi-final and Ma Long in the final by 4–3.

He was appreciated for his amazing backhand-banana at 10-10 and took a service point to win the gold.

At the 2015 WTTC, he lost to Fang Bo 1–4, but partnering with Xu Xin he won the gold medal in the doubles event.

In August, he was upset by Stefan Fegerl of Austria in the men's singles semi-final of the Polish Open.

He lost to Ma Long 3–4 in the final of the German Open despite having a match point in the 6th game.

In 2016, Zhang Jike defeated Ma Long easily 4–1 in the final of the Kuwait Open.

During the Rio Olympics, Zhang defeated Koki Niwa in the quarter-final and Vladimir Samsonov in the semi-final.

In the final he lost to his teammate Ma Long 0–4.

In 2017 at the Asian Championships Zhang defeated Yuya Oshima and Lin Gaoyuan before taking the bronze medal.

At the WTTC in Düsseldorf/Germany, Zhang lost to Lee Sangsu of South-Korea 1–4.

He could not play to his full potential as only the previous month he was under treatment for a hip injury.

Next month in the China Open, he conceded his match versus Masaki Yoshida as he was again suffering from a hip injury.

After 5 months being absent, Zhang appeared on the World Tour again.

He participated in the German Open but lost to Tiago Apolonia 1–4.

His world ranking dropped to 176 due to his absence from the World Tour.