In the final battle of the main force of national table tennis in 2021 - WTT World Cup final, Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha won the gold medal in the men's and women's singles events, but then there has been a question in the table tennis circle, that is: is this champion a "world champion"?
Not long ago (December 30, 2021), the State General Administration of Sport released the "Statistics of China's Athletes Winning the World Championship in 2021", in which only gold medallists from the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Houston World Table Tennis Championships were recorded in the table tennis column, so Sun Yingsha has not yet achieved zero breakthrough in singles world championships, and then still needs to work hard to catch up with teammates such as Chen Meng and Wang Manyu.
There has been a long discussion about the status of WTT World Cup finals in table tennis – veteran fans know that in recent decades, national table tennis and Chinese fans have generally referred to the gold medalists of the Olympic Games, the World Table Tennis Championships and the World Cup as "world champions", while athletes who have gathered three singles champions will be called "Grand Slams".
But instead of hosting a traditional World Cup in 2021, a new WTT World Cup final has been added, which makes everyone wonder: Can this new tournament be a substitute for the old World Cup?
If the WTT World Cup can be compared with the old World Cup, then Sun Yingsha can be called the singles world champion in the future - compared to Fan Zhendong, who has won the singles world championship five times, Sun Yingsha obviously needs this title more to improve her position in the singles field, because she has lost a whole Grand Slam in the singles finals in the past two years!
Note: Sun Yingsha's singles best in the Olympic Games, the World Table Tennis Championships, and the World Cup were all silver medals, and she was continuously suppressed by teammates Chen Meng and Wang Manyu, so she was also called "Damanya" by many fans.
However, according to the announcement issued by the General Department of Sports at the end of last year, the WTT World Cup final obviously does not meet the requirements of the "world championship" event, so Sun Yingsha is naturally difficult to be called a singles world champion.
Then some people have asked: does the old World Cup winner meet this requirement? When we looked at the "Statistics of China's Athletes Winning world championships in 2020" released by the General Administration of Sports at the end of the previous year, it was obviously in line with it - so the problem was not in the World Cup, but in the WTT World Cup final.
In fact, as early as shortly after the WTT World Cup final was announced, many people knew that it was not a substitute for the past World Cup, because the INTERNATIONAL Table Tennis Federation also clearly distinguished between the two events, but because there was no old World Cup in 2021, and it was not known whether it would continue to be held in the future, many people regarded it as one of the major competitions that gave birth to "world champions".
But it is clear that the gold content and status of this emerging tournament are difficult to compare with the old World Cup that has existed since the 80s and 90s of the last century, after all, no one knows how long it will be held, and there have been similar competitions (the Cup of Kings) before, and the result will soon disappear into the long river of history.
Among the current national table tennis women's team players who have not retired, Chen Meng is the Olympic and World Cup women's singles champion, Liu Shiwen is the World Table Tennis Championships and World Cup women's singles champion, Wang Manyu is the World Table Tennis Women's Singles Champion, and Zhu Yuling is the World Cup women's singles champion - although these athletes have not achieved a Grand Slam, they are already singles world champions, but Sun Yingsha still has not made a breakthrough and must continue to work hard.
Of course, even if she does not catch up with these teammates for the time being, Sun Yingsha has repeatedly eliminated strong opponents such as Ito Mimachi in the three major competitions, so she is still a national table tennis hero worthy of everyone's respect! Coupled with the fact that she is also the youngest in the main team, there is still a lot of room for development in the future, and it is entirely possible to realize the dream of a singles world champion or even a Grand Slam.
I look forward to Sun Yingsha's continued efforts in the New Year to make her career more complete: Come on, young people!