On November 16, 2021, the International Table Tennis Federation officially announced the latest edition of the world rankings, and this time also has an extraordinary significance - according to the previous regulations, today's ranking will become the basis for the lottery grouping of the Houston World Table Tennis Championships! So what's the result?
In the men's singles, Fan Zhendong, Zhang Benzhihe, Hugo and Lin Yunru, who participated in the World Table Tennis Championships, ranked in the top 4, and Lin Gaoyuan, Liang Jingkun, Falke and Bohr ranked No. 5 to 8;
In the women's singles, Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, Ito Mimachi and Wang Manyu, who participated in the World Table Tennis Championships, ranked in the top 4, and Zheng Yijing, Ishikawa Jiajun, Wang Yidi and Feng Tianwei ranked No. 5 to 8.
Obviously, the national table tennis is still the biggest winner, congratulations to everyone!
As we all know, affected by the reform of the International Table Tennis Federation, each association can now only send up to 5 male and female athletes to participate in the Singles World Table Tennis Championships (the host or give away 1 place), and like the Chinese table tennis team because of too many talents, so many famous players can not get tickets even if they are ranked high.
As for other associations, athletes may also withdraw from the competition, which makes the world ranking list and the world table tennis seed rankings can not be completely matched, and this year is no exception.
According to the world rankings, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Xu Xin, Zhang Benzhihe, Hugo, Lin Yunru, Lin Gaoyuan, Ochalov, Liang Jingkun, and Fark are the top 10 athletes in the men's singles, but Ma Long and Xu Xin voluntarily withdrew from the competition, and Ocharov also announced his abandonment of the competition due to sudden injuries, which made Zhang Benzhihe and others profitable and replaced as the seed players of the No. 2 seat.
In the women's singles, the latest world top 10 athletes are Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, Ito Mimako, Wang Manyu, Ding Ning, Zhu Yuling, Liu Shiwen, Zheng Yijing, Ishikawa Jiachun, Wang Yidi, but Ding Ning has retired, Liu Shiwen took the initiative to give up participating in the World Table Tennis Championships, Zhu Yuling failed to be selected, so they naturally will not become seed players.
According to the convention, the 1st and 2nd seeded players will be divided into the upper and lower half of the competition, and the 3rd and 4th seeded players will not meet each other, but will be scattered in the 1/4 district where the 1st and 2nd are located. In other words, before the singles final of this year's World Table Tennis Championships, Zhang Benzhihe will definitely avoid Fan Zhendong, while Ito Mimachi will definitely avoid Wang Manyu.
In general, the pressure on the national table tennis women's team is not particularly large, and the men's team is different, because only Fan Zhendong is in the top four, which means that the other 4 teammates may even be divided into a half zone with him - this situation could not have been necessary, because Ma Long and Xu Xin are ranked in the top three in the world, but unfortunately they both retired, so Zhang Benzhihe and others were given a chance.
Of course, although the lottery group can directly affect the course of the game, it has a limited impact on athletes who aspire to win the championship: if you want to win the gold medal, you must naturally defeat all the opponents you encounter, whether it is a civil war or an external war. Of course, a good signing position can indeed reduce the difficulty of winning the championship, but there are not a few athletes who have worked hard to win the championship, and speaking with strength is the king.
Taking Zhang Benzhihe as an example, the only national table tennis player in the same half of the world table tennis championships with himself was Xu Xin, and as a result, Xu Xin was also out of the game in advance, and another opponent who gave him a headache, Pol, also withdrew due to illness. But the result? He was actually beaten to tears by South Korea's fledgling young general Ahn Jae-hyun, which shows that the opportunity is only given to those who have strength!
Finally, I wish the Chinese team a victory in the United States and win all the championships again: Come on, everyone! Fans across the country support you!