Xu Xin appears to be the remaining top penhold player in the world’s competitions, when Ma Lin and Wang Hao begin to step down from the national team. So far I do not see any penhold successors from China and other nations as competent as Xu Xin to be atop on the international table tennis forums. This may be what the Chinese coaches and other penhold enthusiasts are worrying about. Will the men’s penhold style follow the women’s fate to be gradually retreating from the international table tennis forums? Indeed many Chinese people have quite a feeling with the penhold style as it has represented for quite a long time the emerging superiority over the world’s table tennis competitions. This can explain why they have to develop the reverse-backhand technique for penhold players to eliminate their strategic weakness at the backhand side. Unfortunately, the development could be deemed unsuccessful as there is still no one with the “reverse-backhand” competency and result comparable to Wang Hao. While Xu Xin now can still represent the penhold superiority at this stage, will his retirement represent the end of penhold’s role in the international table tennis forums?
