A champion born on a small Portuguese island
Marcos Freitas ranked 16th in the ITTF world rankings in February 2014, placing him 4th among European athletes, behind Ovtcharov, Boll, and Samsonov. Born in 1988, he hails from Madeira, an island far from the Portuguese mainland. At his age, he is definitely part of the younger generation in European table tennis, and he currently plays for the French first-division club Pontoise-Cergy alongside former Chinese national team player Wang Jianjun.
In 2014, while China was still immersed in the atmosphere of the Lunar New Year, the European table tennis scene was already "full of smoke and fire." Portugal's top player, Freitas, underwent two weeks of intensive training to prepare for the Europe Top 16 Cup. His efforts were not in vain; in the men's singles final of the Europe Top 16 Cup held in Lausanne, Switzerland, on February 8-9, 2014, the left-handed Freitas defeated the returning Danish star Michael Maze in straight sets to win the championship. The official ITTF website praised his performance highly.
As Freitas said at the post-match press conference, defeating several top European players such as Shibaev (Russia), Mattenet (France), and Maze in this premier European table tennis event, and ultimately winning the first significant title of his career, was very important to him. It also proved his strength through such a high-level competition.
Tempered by the European Youth Championships and league play
After winning the European Cadet Singles Championship in 2002, Freitas really started to gain attention at the 2006 European Youth Championships. As one of the two major "cradles of stars" tournaments, the European Youth Championships have nurtured a large number of dazzling European stars, from the older generation like Waldner, Persson, Gatien, Rosskopf, and Schlager, to current players like Samsonov, Boll, and Ovtcharov, all of whom began their brilliant careers after finding success on this stage. It is no exaggeration to say that the door to success for every adult champion is opened by the Asian Youth Championships and the European Youth Championships.
In 2006, I was leading the Belgian team at the European Youth Championships. The talented left-handed player Freitas, after defeating the German rising star Patrick Baum in the men's singles final, jumped onto the table and cheered with his arms raised, leaving a deep impression on every spectator present.
After the European Youth Championships, like most star players, Freitas went to Germany, which has one of the most well-developed league systems, and joined the traditional Bundesliga powerhouse Jülich. Initially, because his physique was relatively thin, Freitas relied solely on his superior touch, and his style was of the "tenacious" type. After paying his "tuition fees," Freitas was scouted by the Bundesliga giant Borussia Düsseldorf in 2008, gaining the opportunity to play alongside top stars like Boll, and he won both the Bundesliga and the Champions League titles that same year.
At that time, Freitas continued to develop his personal technique toward a proactive and aggressive style, and his approach was clearly shifting toward personalization. In 2010, Freitas finished his 5th season in the Bundesliga with Ochsenhausen, by which time he had already attracted the attention of more and more European clubs. After careful consideration, Freitas ultimately chose the French first-division powerhouse Pontoise-Cergy, where he has remained to this day.
A young Portuguese player who makes the Germans wary
Frequent international competitions allowed the fledgling Freitas to grow rapidly. Between 2006 and 2008, Freitas reached the finals of the ITTF Pro Tour Under-21 category multiple times, and through his own efforts, he eventually qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. For a Portuguese table tennis player with few resources to rely on, these achievements were not easy. Even later, when facing adult opponents with more strength and experience, Freitas was still able to produce many great shots on the international stage.
After a few years of relative silence, the continuous improvement of his physical fitness combined with his own intuition for the game led to a qualitative change in his table tennis level. Within a relatively short growth cycle, the Portuguese national men's table tennis team, driven by the efforts of three young players—Freitas, Apolónia, and Monteiro—became increasingly strong. Although Germany's status as the "number one" in Europe is hard to shake, the overall strength of Belarus, France, Sweden, and Austria has been weakening day by day as their core players age. At this time, the highlights in matches always appeared with the three young Portuguese players. The Portuguese national men's table tennis team did not fade away with the overall decline of European table tennis; instead, it grew into a formidable team that cannot be underestimated, becoming an indispensable force for Europe in the world table tennis arena.
At the 2010 European Championships, I met the then-head coach of the German national team, Richard Prause. When chatting about his overall predictions for that European Championship, he, who is usually cautious with his words, spoke bluntly, believing that the most terrifying team was Portugal, and that anyone who met them would face a spark-filled duel. A few days later, after the competition ended, I talked to Prause again about his feelings on the tournament before returning home. He emphasized that the German men's team had already reached a dominant position in Europe similar to that of China in the world table tennis scene. European countries were all aiming to defeat Germany. It is lonely at the top, and the trend of "Europe vs. Germany" was becoming increasingly obvious; everyone wanted a piece of the action, and Boll and Ovtcharov were feeling this pressure more and more strongly. "We are not afraid of the young French team because they have not yet completed their team 'rebuilding'." At that time, the Germans believed the primary threat came from the Portuguese team. "The three players on the Portuguese team have balanced overall strength, their lineup is flexible, and each has their own unique playing style. More importantly, the growing maturity of Freitas has increased our pressure significantly."
Became the top player for the Portuguese team in 2013
Freitas, who is full of passion on the court, is also a very intuitive player. Looking back at his record before 2013, we can feel that he was actually full of regrets deep down, because relative to his high world ranking, Freitas did not have particularly eye-catching results, and his performance in competitions against world-class players was poor, even losing all 6 of his encounters with Samsonov. As both were star players signed by TIBHAR, such a record was truly embarrassing for Freitas, and his steady rise in world rankings at the time could not prove that he had reached a world-class level.
However, all of this changed in 2013. At the Qatar Open in February 2013, Freitas defeated the rapidly rising Fan Zhendong, and in the same year, he defeated the Chinese Taipei team's main player, Chuang Chih-yuan, at the German Open. These two top-tier professional events, labeled "Super" by the ITTF, gave him a good start. Once his confidence was strong enough, it was like breaking through a layer of window paper. With a few good matches, Freitas gradually completed his transformation into an absolute core player amidst the three-way rivalry in Portuguese table tennis. His two equally capable teammates, Apolónia and Monteiro, were left behind by him without realizing it, and the indomitable Freitas never hid his determination to challenge for a higher level. I believe that as long as he continues to work on technical details, resolves relatively rough technical aspects, and improves overall technical rigor, Freitas's competitive level will continue to rise. Today's Portuguese men's table tennis team will also, with the improvement of the three young players' strength, become a European powerhouse following Germany, and will have the strength to stand on the podium at world-class events.