- Fan Zhendong of China has -125 favorite odds to beat the Men’s Individual table tennis event.
- Zhendong has been ranked No. 1 in the world since 2018.
- He is a 23-time singles winner.
TOKYO – Fan Zhendong’s strong showing in the last few years has him being the runaway favorite at online sportsbooks to win the gold medal for Men’s Table Tennis at the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.
Zhendong is currently ranked No. 1 in the world, a position he has held on to since 2018.
This will be the first time Zhendong competed in the Olympics.
Zhendong’s fellow Team China teammate Ma Long won the gold during the 2016 Rio Olympics. Long has the second shortest Olympic betting odds to win the gold at online sportsbooks.
Betting Fans Pick Fan Zhendong
Tokyo 2021 - Men's Individual
- Fan Zhendong (CHN) -125
- Ma Long (CHN) +138
- Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN) +1000
- Lin Yun-Ju (TPE) +2000
- Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER) +3300
- Mattias Falck (SWE) +3300
- Timo Boll (GER) +3300
- Hugo Calderano (BRA) +4000
- Jang Woo-Jin (KOR) +5000
Zhendong being favored is no surprise. The 24-year-old table tennis champion just recently won the ITTF World Tour in Austria, China, and Germany. He also holds wins at the 2019 Asian Cup Table Tennis Tournament and the able Tennis World Cup (Men's Singles).
He has been held on the number one World Ranking with his shake attack playing style and has defeated multiple World Champions along the way, including beating Olympic gold medalist Ma Long at the 2020 ITTF Men’s World Cup Dusseldorf.
Ma Long did get the better of Zhendong a few days later at with a 4-1 win at the 2020 ITTF Finals, but Fan remains the favorite to win the gold.
The Olympics will be a new experience for Zhendong but he is no stranger to high-level competition. China is poised to continue its long dominance of table tennis at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games with Fan Zhendong leading the way.