The ITTF Greek Open will start on January 28, 2004, and there are still about 10 days to go. The men's singles quota has been determined, with a total of six people, namely Ye Hao, Ma Lin, Wang Liqin, Kong Linghui, Wang Hao and Chen Qi, while the two qualifications for doubles have not been decided.

Ye Hao found his head coach Xiao Zhan and said a request that surprised him.

"Coach Xiao, Ma Long and I want to sign up for the doubles of the Greek Open, what do you think?"

After Xiao Zhan listened, he was stunned for 10 seconds before he asked in a very uncertain tone, "You two want to participate in the doubles competition?" Or that Greek Open at the end of the month? ”

"Yes, don't you see that the team hasn't decided on the list of participants yet, do we have a play?" Ye Hao asked tentatively.

"No play!" Xiao Zhan vetoed, and he was finally sure that the other party was not joking with him, but serious.

"I still want to try, why don't you help me ask what Director Liu means." Ye Hao was not impatient, he knew that his request was indeed a bit difficult, after all, Ma Long had only been paired with him for less than half a month.

As soon as Xiao Zhan heard it, he knew that his apprentice was not dead, and he thought that it would be useless for him to go to Liu Guoliang, so in order to make you break this idea, then go. "Okay, then I'll take you to see Director Liu, and you can tell him yourself."

So the two found Liu Guoliang, who was observing training on the sidelines, and after explaining their intentions, Liu Guoliang's thoughts were the same as Xiao Zhan's. "How long have you two been practicing? Isn't it about giving points to your opponent when you go to the tournament now? No, no! ”

"Let me ask you a question, okay?" Ye Hao saw that Liu Guoliang also disagreed, so he was ready to adopt a roundabout tactic.

Liu Guoliang: "What? You say. ”

"Are you ready to send any two combinations on the team right now? If not, then is it necessary to select? This? Is the selection through a competition? Ye Hao asked three questions in one breath.

As soon as Liu Guoliang heard Ye Hao's words, he knew that he was thinking: "You still have a lot of questions, what are your ideas?" ”

Ye Hao smiled, "Now there are Ma Lin and Chen Qi in the team, Wang Liqin and Yan Sen, Wang Hao and Kong Linggray, these three powerful men's doubles combinations. The team must be ready to choose from the two places in Greece, right? But now you must be hesitant to let the two pairs participate, after all, this is a rare opportunity to practice before the Olympics, and whoever can participate will almost be selected for the Olympics. Do you think I'm right? ”

"You're a goblin!" Liu Guoliang couldn't help but point at Ye Hao. "If there's anything else you want to say, let's talk about it together."

"Either the team will organize an intra-team tryout, let the three of them compete against each other, the capable one will go up, and the loser will go down. However, it's not good to start a competition with three combinations, so why don't you let me make up the numbers and learn from my seniors by the way? Ye Hao finally tried to see the dagger and said his purpose. He never expected to be able to get the coach in a few words, so that he and Ma Long could qualify for the competition, everything still has to be based on strength. All Ye Hao asked for was a chance to fight fairly, nothing more.

Liu Guoliang and Xiao Zhan were silent when they heard Ye Hao's words. After a while, Liu Guoliang was the first to speak: "Are you so confident that you can beat the other three combinations in the competition?" ”

"Nope." Ye Hao replied honestly. "However, I want to fight for it and see what the strength of our combination is, which can be regarded as actual combat practice."

"Okay, you go back, I'll think about it again." Liu Guoliang said.

Ye Hao saw that Liu Guoliang did not directly reject him, and knew that maybe what he said just now moved the other party, so he stopped dwelling on it and left with Xiao Zhan.

Liu Guoliang, who was left alone, considered Ye Hao's suggestion, and he was already ready to give up the combination of Wang Liqin and Yan Sen and let the other two combinations go to the game. But now that I think about it, if this is the case, it is indeed too ruthless to Yan and Wang, after all, they are Olympic champion combinations, and they have persevered for four years in order to participate in the Olympics again, especially Yan Sen has paid a lot.

"Let's give them a chance, as for Ye Hao and the others, let's take it by the way." Liu Guoliang said to himself. Later, after communicating his considerations with head coach Cai Ping-Pong, he decided to use the method of intra-team selection to determine the qualification for the doubles of the Greek Open. Among them, a total of four doubles teams participated in the selection, using a round-robin format, and the top two teams were determined as winners.

"Yan Sen, do you have the confidence to win the selection within the team?" Wang Liqin looked at his partner beside him.

"Haven't I been doing it until now just for the Athens Olympics? What's more, now with such a small selection within the team, if you can't win this, then don't think about anything! Yan Sen's momentum is very strong, what he doesn't know is that if it weren't for Ye Hao's involvement, their combination would have been excluded from the list of candidates for the competition.

……

On the other side, Kong Linghui was talking to Wang Hao, "When will Ye Hao practice doubles?" ”

Wang Hao scratched his head, "I don't know very well, his partner seems to have just been promoted to the first team, and the two should have teamed up recently." ”

……

"We have to grab a spot!" Chen Qi said to Ma Lin beside him.

"A must. Our main opponents now are Wang Hao and Kong Linghui, Wang Liqin and Yan Sen. As for Ye Hao, how many days has he only practiced doubles? The cooperation is probably not tacit enough, and there is no threat. Marin analyzed.

……

"Brother Long, now I am stalking with Director Liu and Director Xiao, so I finally asked for such an opportunity to participate in the team selection. We're going to have to behave! ”

"Don't worry, Ye Hao. I'd like to come with you to Athens for the men's doubles Olympics! After Malone knew that he had the opportunity to participate in the Greek Open, he was extremely excited and his fighting spirit was high.

On January 16, the national table tennis men's team Greek Open men's doubles qualification internal selection tournament began. Four teams play against each other in pairs, each with three appearances, and after six games, the first two teams with the most wins will qualify. Each game is played in a best-of-five format, with two games in the morning, noon and evening, which can be completed in one day.

The order of Ye Hao/Ma Long is: the first game against Ma Lin/Chen Qi, the second game against Wang Liqin/Yan Sen, and the third game against Kong Lingshen/Wang Hao. Because there are only three games, if you lose all three games, you will definitely be eliminated, and if you lose two games, then it depends on the results of the other teams' games, so only if you win more than two games, you can ensure that you enter the top two. Every game is very crucial, and every game is a knockout game, a battle of life and death.