Have participated in a few sports at the amateur level. Nowhere near the level of these guys - they're the best in the world at what they do and I could barely rank in the top 500 of the collegiate levels in my country. And I couldn't take it. I quit after just about 3 years of university level competition and never once thought about even trying at the open levels.
Here's the worst part: if you're a spectator, all you think about is the tournament results. Nobody ever thinks about the preparation. The fact that you have to grind for so much time in practice, always asking yourself if it's enough and whether you're able to keep pace with the competition, let alone move up the ranks. Always asking yourself if you need to do even more.
So I have no idea how people compete at this level and how they manage to keep it up for so long. And how they learn to cope with the defeats, not let it get them down, and to keep coming back after. Just getting back into that preparation mode with no guarantee whether it'll ever pay off. Just think about that again - you can work so fucking hard and bust your ass off, and still have no idea if you'll even qualify for the next tournament let alone do even better.
Mad respect for all of these pros, especially when they have such long and storied careers as Zai. No matter what their results are, it takes a crazy amount of strength to do what these people do.