Zhang Jike

At 36 years old, Zhang Jike has this physical status:

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. 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.

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 Stefen 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. 6 months later he participated on the 2018 World Tour again. He first lost to Maharu Yoshimura, 3–4 in the Hong Kong Open as it was his first match after a long break from competitive play. Later that year at the China Open, he easily defeated Aruna Quadri but couldn't survive the speed of Tomokazu Harimoto. At the Japan Open, he was back in form again and defeated Lin Yun-ju, Jonathan Groth, Liang Jiangkun and Jin Ueda. But unfortunately he injured his back while playing against Harimoto in the final and lost 3–4 in a narrow match. His ranking however increased to number 71 in just one month. Two months later at the Asia-Euro Championships he defeated Bastian Steger and Jonathan Groth and proved he is still in form.

Career records

Men's doubles

Source