Chen Meng's Blade Evolution: From a Borrowed ZLF to Back-to-Back Olympic Gold
For a two-time Olympic singles champion, the road was never easy. Through her lows and highs, Chen Meng’s idol and fellow Shandong player Li Xiaoxia was always there to help; before the Paris Games, Li again encouraged her: since you’re in it, fight for the title. Their “lineage” perhaps began at the 2013 National Games.
1. A Borrowed Liu Shiwen ZLF (2013)
At the 2013 National Games, Chen Meng reached the women’s singles final holding a short-code custom Liu Shiwen ZLF that Liu had given her, finally losing 3-4 to her senior Li Xiaoxia. The inner pure-ZL-fiber Liu Shiwen ZLF offers a soft, ball-holding feel with some amplification of power, though without the firmness of inner ZLC after you load it. Several players used it early on — besides Liu, also Koki Niwa and Lee Sangsu.
2. First Taste of Stiga: Infinity VPS V (2014)
Her bond with Stiga perhaps began with the Infinity VPS V (“Diamond Five”), though in 2014 Chen Meng only tried it briefly. It’s a crisp, through-feeling all-wood five-ply; Stiga all-wood blades are always through, if not always crisp — unless the outer ply is hard wood. The VPS V’s surface gets extra hardness from Stiga’s Diamond Touch technology, making it steadier on borrowed pace and able to add speed.
3. Hurricane-Meng and the Legendary Hurricane-Yan (2014)
That same year DHS’s research lab built her the “Hurricane-Meng,” also a W968 structure, while the Hurricane-Yan (Yan An) surfaced on the market. Years ago an 1,800-yuan Hurricane-Yan sat in front of me and I didn’t treasure it — only later did I lament that inflation had outpaced my raises, and I could never afford one again.
4. The Carbonado 45 Era (2017 onward)
By at least 2017 she was on the AN-handle Carbonado 45. I once mistook a code-less team-issue Carbonado 45 for a Euro version and sold it by accident — only for it to become a buyer’s prized “code-less special.” Chen Meng won a great deal with this 45, and the gourd-handle version became a dream for many. The Carbonado 45 really is a magic blade; 2019 was its peak, with many women’s-team players using it. Sitting in the front row at the strongest-12 event watching Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha clash with two Carbonado 45s, you began to wonder: are the women’s blades actually better suited to us amateurs — delicate, ball-holding, spinny, light and forgiving?
5. A Brief Hurricane Wang Power (2019)
At the September 2019 Asian Championships women’s team event, China beat Japan 3-0. After disappointing earlier stops — with fans joking that she “swapped blades after losses” — Chen Meng appeared with a custom Hurricane Wang Power, essentially an N301 structure (koto surface, inner yellow arylate-carbon, ayous core). Compared with the springy N301, this custom played at a higher quality than the retail version but without frightening power — more about steadiness and relentless consistency. Soon, though, she switched back to the Carbonado 45.
6. Switching to Viscaria — and Tokyo Gold (2020–2021)
In October 2020, holding a P-code round-stamp Viscaria, she lost the National Games women’s team final 1-3 to He Zhuojia, staring at her blade as if puzzled by the dropped balls — understandable, as she’d only just switched. Versus the Carbonado 45, the Viscaria is more durable on the backhand and steadier in defense, but the forehand arc is less full. She persevered, and at the Tokyo Olympics she won the women’s singles title with the Viscaria.
7. A Detour Through the W968 (2023)
In January 2023, seeking more ball quality, Chen Meng (alongside Chen Xingtong) picked up the W968 at the Durban Worlds Asian qualifier. The W968’s forehand is explosive, but she didn’t seem keen on that, and soon returned to the Viscaria. Still, the urge to change hadn’t died.
8. The Fan Zhendong Super ALC — and a Second Olympic Title (2023–2024)
In December 2023, at the World Team Championships, Chen Meng began using the Fan Zhendong Super ALC. Switching blades less than a year before the Olympics is rare; her close junior teammate Wang Xiaotong — who’d moved from the Boll ZLC to the Fan Zhendong Super ALC — clearly played a part. Versus the Viscaria, the Fan Zhendong Super ALC accelerates faster at medium power, combines speed and spin more easily, and brings out power amplification more readily. The switch proved right: at the Paris Olympics, Chen Meng successfully defended her women’s singles title — and Butterfly, by a twist of fate, again had the last laugh. Across her blade history, you see someone who “stubbornly believes” in her own choices — which is perhaps exactly why she can pull off improbable, against-the-wind comebacks.