In the blink of an eye, 2021 is a thing of the past, and 2022 has arrived. For the Chinese table tennis team, last year was indeed very busy, because everyone encountered the first ever Olympic Games and the single World Table Tennis Championships held in the same year, the preparation task is quite heavy, although in the end there are still some regrets, but fortunately the overall results are still very good.
In the 2022 season, the national table tennis also has many extra-special tasks, among which the Chengdu World Table Tennis Championships and the Hangzhou Asian Games held at their doorstep are undoubtedly the top priorities, in addition to the WTT Grand Slam Tournament of "holding the pipa and half covering the face", and Liu Guoliang and Waldner have organized new events together - more details are arranged below.
1. Chengdu World Table Tennis Championships
According to previous reports, the 2022 Team World Table Tennis Championships will be held in Chengdu, China from late April to early May, and this battle is an important test for national table tennis, after all, the last competition was still in 2018, and only half of the 10 Chinese team players who appeared at that time were still in the first-line main lineup: new team, new challenge!
Judging from the strength of the table tennis arena of the Foreign Association, the German men's team and the Japanese women's team are undoubtedly the strongest opponents of national table tennis, and the Swedish, Japanese and Korean men's teams are also strong and worthy of vigilance. However, considering that the team World Table Tennis Championship is a 5-set singles, the probability of the foreign association upsetting the Chinese team is smaller, but the national table tennis still cannot relax its vigilance.
2. Hangzhou Asian Games
The Hangzhou Asian Games will be held from September 10 to 25, 2022, the table tennis duel is tentatively scheduled for September 12 to 19, a total of 8 days, the competition items from the previous 5 items to 7 items, but because the Japanese team has never attached importance to this event, so the main opponent of national table tennis is probably only South Koreans, the problem is not very big.
According to the previous practice of national table tennis, athletes who have won the Asian Games singles may be absent from the project, and some of the main players may even not play at all, giving up the opportunity to young players (such as Ma Long, Xu Xin, Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen and others in the last Asian Games, who did not go, Xue Fei participated), so we may not be able to see the full main lineup play.
3. WTT Grand Slam
The WTT Grand Slam is an important event promoted by the Table Tennis Federation in recent years, claiming to replace the old Grand Slam system with the Olympic Games, the World Table Tennis Championships and the World Cup as the core in the past. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, there was not a WTT Grand Slam until the end of 2021, and although there were rumors to be held in 2022, the official website of the Table Tennis Federation was not listed, so it was not sure whether it could be done.
According to the information previously released on the Internet, 4 WTT Grand Slams may be held in 2022, the location may be in Düsseldorf, Germany, Tokyo, Japan, Weihai, China, and the last one is to be determined - but everything is "possible", after all, the competition that is planned to be held in 2020 has not yet been shadowed, and no one dares to pack tickets to say that there must be drama this year.
4. Other official competitions
In addition to the WTT Grand Slams, table tennis will also hold some WTT regular challenges, star challenges, and ITTF open tournaments. According to the latest arrangement, there will be two WTT Düsseldorf Challenges in January, but the Chinese team is likely to give up participating; while the WTT Macau National Table Tennis Will be elite, but the event has no points and is not considered a regular WTT competition.
As for whether the much-watched old World Cup, the ITTF Professional Tour Finals and the newly held WTT World Cup Finals at the end of last year will appear in 2022, we are not very clear - affected by the epidemic and the reform of the Table Tennis Federation, the current international competition arrangements for table tennis are relatively chaotic, and we can only take one step at a time.
5. "Liu Guoliang - Lao Wa" cup
This competition is very interesting, it is the two Grand Slam elders of the table tennis world - Liu Guoliang and Waldner discussed together, the main content is that the two led the top masters of the national table tennis and foreign associations to form a "Chinese team" and "world team" and then played against each other, which is a bit similar to the previous national ball ceremony.
According to the latest news, the "Liu Guoliang - Lao Wa" Cup will be opened on July 26-31, 2022, but the location is neither in China, nor in Sweden, but in Norway, as for the list of participating athletes is not determined, many people speculate that Malone, Pol and other veterans will join, so let's wait and see!
Finally, I wish the national table tennis athletes can continue to win glory for the country in the New Year, and strive to win the gold in major competitions: Come on, everyone!