In the final at the World Championships 2013 Zhang played against Wang Hao and defended his title after defeating him. In 2014 he won the World Cup for second time. His final-opponent was Ma Long. At the WTTC 2015 he won bronze in the singles and gold in the doubles with Xu Xin. In the semifinals in the singles category he lost to Fang Bo. During this year he lost unusually often against non-Chinese players. Nevertheless, he was nominated for the Olympic Games 2016. Here he won the silver medal in singles and with the team the gold medal. At the Asian Cup in the same year he lost to Xu Xin the final at the singles category. In the Chinese Superleague 2016 he didn't play. In 2017 he had to stop because of a fever in the second round. At the World Championships he came to Round 32 only.