Fan Zhendong: The Grand Slam Champion Who Left the World Tour (2026)

Who Is Fan Zhendong?

Fan Zhendong is a Chinese table tennis player and the Paris 2024 Olympic men's singles champion. He is a two-time world champion (2021 and 2023), a four-time World Cup winner and a former world No. 1, and his Olympic gold made him only the sixth man to complete the career Grand Slam.

Born on January 22, 1997, in Guangzhou, Fan grew up as the heir to Ma Long in China's men's team and spent years as his greatest rival. Then, months after his Olympic triumph, he stunned the sport by withdrawing from the world rankings. Since 2025 he has been playing club table tennis in Germany, where he has become the biggest draw in the Bundesliga.

Early Years: A Junior Who Won Everything

Fan started at the Haizhu District Children's Palace in Guangzhou under coaches Yang Biyu and Wen Haoguang. He was marked out early as a future star, and his junior record shows why:

• 2012 World Junior Championships (Hyderabad): gold in singles, mixed doubles and team, plus silver in doubles.
• 2012 Asian Junior Championships: gold in singles, doubles and team.
• 2013 Asian Youth Games (Nanjing): singles gold.
• 2014 Youth Olympic Games (Nanjing): gold in singles and the mixed team event.

By then he was already appearing on the senior stage. He won team gold at the 2013 Asian Championships aged 16 and was part of China's winning team at the 2014 World Team Championships. In 2016 he won his first World Cup singles title, and in April 2018 he reached world No. 1 for the first time, at 21.

Fan Zhendong's Titles and Medals

Few players have filled a trophy cabinet this quickly. The table below lists his major senior titles; it does not include his many silver and bronze medals.

He was also named ITTF Male Player of the Year for 2023, the season in which he retained his world title in Durban and added the men's doubles crown with Wang Chuqin.

The Grand Slam: Paris 2024

In table tennis, the career Grand Slam means winning singles gold at the Olympic Games, the World Championships and the World Cup. Fan already had four World Cups and two world titles, but Olympic gold had eluded him: in Tokyo 2020 he reached the singles final and lost 4-2 to Ma Long.

In Paris he finally closed the set. On August 4, 2024, he beat Sweden's Truls Möregårdh 4-1 in the men's singles final, becoming the sixth man (and the eleventh player overall) to complete the Grand Slam. The five men before him were Jan-Ove Waldner, Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui, Zhang Jike and Ma Long. He then helped China win the men's team event, taking his Olympic gold count to three. You can read more about the Games in our guide to table tennis at the Olympics.

Rivalry With Ma Long and Others

For most of Fan's career, the biggest obstacle in his path wore the same red jersey. Ma Long, more than eight years older, was the reigning king of the sport when Fan arrived, and their meetings in major finals shaped an era.

The Tokyo final was the most painful, but the 2021 National Games match showed his resilience: facing six match points against Ma in the team final, he came back to win. Over time the two became the backbone of the same Olympic team, sharing team gold in Tokyo. If you want the other side of the story, see our profile of Ma Long.

Fan's other key relationships are with teammates. He won the 2017 world doubles title with Xu Xin and the 2023 title with Wang Chuqin, the player who has since become China's leading man. On the international side, Germany's Timo Boll became a close friend; in 2021 Boll said the two played a similar style, but that Fan did it better.

Playing Style: Power on Both Wings

Fan is a right-handed shakehand attacker widely regarded as having one of the strongest backhands of his generation. His main traits:

• Explosive footwork: he moves quickly for a stocky player and arrives early to the ball, which lets him attack from almost any position.
• Two-winged loops: heavy, fast topspin from both the forehand and backhand, with the backhand often used as a finishing shot rather than a setup stroke.
• Close-to-table pressure: he likes to take the ball early and turn rallies into a battle of pace.
• Elbow position: his relatively high elbow helps fast switches from backhand to forehand, but analysts note that it can leave the middle (the crossover point near his playing elbow) as a target.

The style is built on a classic shakehand grip and a lot of physical conditioning. For club players, the lesson is to work on footwork and early timing before chasing raw power.

Fan Zhendong Equipment: Blade and Rubbers

Fan played with Stiga equipment earlier in his career. On November 1, 2021, Butterfly announced it had signed him, and the company has since released a whole Fan Zhendong blade series. His reported setup:

The Fan Zhendong ALC Blade

The Fan Zhendong ALC uses the same plywood structure as the Butterfly Viscaria: five wood plies with two Arylate-Carbon layers. Butterfly says the design was inspired by Fan's fast-tempo attacking style.

Those reaction and vibration numbers are identical to Butterfly's figures for the Timo Boll ALC, which shows how closely related the two blades are; the main differences are the handle and branding. Butterfly also sells other blades in the series, such as the Fan Zhendong Super ALC, ZLC and Super ZLC, but the ALC is the one tied to his own game. Our Butterfly Viscaria review covers the same construction in more depth.

Should You Copy Fan's Setup?

Probably not straight away. A carbon blade with a tacky Chinese forehand rubber and a premium tensor backhand is built for players who generate their own power with full strokes. Beginners and improvers will usually progress faster with a slower all-wood frame. Browse our best table tennis blades and best table tennis rubber guides to find a step-by-step path, or read our DHS Hurricane 3 review to see what makes the Chinese team's favorite forehand rubber so different. For a comparison with another legend's racket, see Ma Long's equipment.

Leaving the World Rankings in 2024

On December 27, 2024, less than five months after his Olympic gold, Fan posted a signed "Player Career Retirement Notification" on Weibo. The document withdrew him from all ITTF-sanctioned events and removed him from the world rankings. China's Olympic women's champion Chen Meng did the same.

Fan explained that he was worn out from the Paris cycle and that new World Table Tennis rules, which fine top-ranked players for skipping required events, left him no workable choice. He said he could not afford the fines but still respected the organizations, and stressed that he would not retire. He had already skipped the November 2024 WTT Finals. WTT said the participation rules had existed since its founding and were meant to keep top players at its key events.

A New Chapter in Germany

Fan's next move surprised many fans. In late May 2025 reports emerged that he had signed with 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT in the German Bundesliga, and he posted that he was looking forward to "the new challenge in Saarbrücken and in the TTBL." He joined for the 2025/26 season, while also returning home in 2025 to win men's singles gold at China's National Games, beating Lin Shidong 4-1 in the final.

The Saarbrücken Treble (2025/26)

His one season at Saarbrücken was the most successful in the club's history:

• German Cup: won 3-1 over Fulda-Maberzell in Neu-Ulm on January 4, 2026, the club's first-ever title, with Fan named MVP.
• Champions League: Saarbrücken lifted the European title in May 2026.
• Bundesliga: a 3-1 win over Borussia Düsseldorf in the final in Frankfurt completed the treble. Fan won both of his singles in the final, including the decider against Kanak Jha.

According to Xinhua, he went 20-3 in his 23 Bundesliga matches and was voted the league's Player of the Season.

Borussia Düsseldorf (2026/27)

In March 2026, Saarbrücken announced that Fan would leave at the end of the season and join their rivals Borussia Düsseldorf on a one-year deal from July 1, 2026. The link is easy to trace: Düsseldorf was Timo Boll's club for 18 years, and Fan credited his friend with introducing him to it. He was presented in Düsseldorf on August 20, 2026, calling the move "a new chapter in my career." His home debut was moved to a hall seating more than 4,000 because of ticket demand.

As of November 2026, Fan remains outside the world rankings and plays his competitive table tennis in the Bundesliga and European club competition, alongside teammates such as Dang Qiu, Anton Källberg and Kanak Jha.

Fun Facts About Fan Zhendong

• His nickname "Xiao Pang" means "Little Fatty"; in 2021 fans started calling teammate Lin Shidong "Little Little Fatty."
• He studied at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
• At the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan he won four golds: singles, doubles, mixed doubles and team.
• His father's family comes from Qidong County in Hunan province, although Fan was born and raised in Guangzhou.

Want to see where he sits among the all-time greats? Our list of the best ping pong players puts his career in context.

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