In a sentence

His game had one label: explosive. And that explosiveness let him run through, in a little over a year, a trophy list others spend a whole career assembling.

Playing style

  • A backhand flick whose speed and power stood out among his contemporaries
  • Explosive strength, able to suddenly accelerate into counterattack from a defensive position
  • Flicked the return directly with his backhand, turning a passive exchange into an attack

Career and key moments

He won men’s singles at the 2011 Rotterdam World Championships and the men’s singles World Cup the same year; at the 2012 London Olympics he took men’s singles gold, completing the Grand Slam just 445 days after his first world singles title — the fastest on record. He defended his men’s singles title at the 2013 Paris World Championships. At the 2016 Rio Olympics he helped the team to the men’s team title and lost the men’s singles final to Ma Long, taking silver.

What he left the game

He turned the backhand flick from one option on the return into a standard way to open an attack, and a whole generation of players’ return training has run through him ever since.

In a sentence: A technique sharp enough can redefine how an entire rally begins.