2022 has just arrived, and the internal chaos in the table tennis circles of China and Japan is about to start - according to the arrangement, the WTT Macau Competition from January 19 to 23 will have 30 national table tennis players joining, including 12 world champions such as Ma Long; and from January 24 to 30, the Japanese National Championships officially started, with 972 people such as Zhang Benzhihe and Ito Mimachi registering, and 4 world champions participating.
Although there is no chance between Chinese and Japanese players this time, considering that the table tennis level of the two countries has reached the world-class height, everyone's "civil war" will also be wonderful: two consecutive peak showdowns will be staged, and fans and friends can feast their eyes!
WTT Macau was supposed to be an international event, but due to the needs of epidemic prevention and control and the fact that table tennis experts from other countries are busy, it has gradually evolved into our own "warm-up competition", except for two European Chinese players, the rest of the participating athletes are from China.
According to the registration form, as many as 30 national table tennis athletes participated in the Macao Competition, reaching 85.7% of the total number, including world champions Ma Long, Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong, Liang Jingkun, Wang Chuqin, Lin Gaoyuan, Yu Ziyang, Liu Shiwen, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, Sun Yingsha, Chen Xingtong, indeed elite, veritable "fairy fight"!
As for the Japanese National Championships, it is its own first-class competition, which has been held as early as World War II, and has a history of more than half a century, for which Japanese players have pushed out all international open competitions, challenges and domestic T Leagues, and Ito Mimachi regards it as one of the two major events he attaches most importance to this year (the other is the Chengdu World Table Tennis Championships).
From the perspective of strength, Zhang Benzhihe and Ito Mimachi are still the biggest favorites to win the championship in this championship, but they have not won the singles gold medal for several consecutive years, which shows that the "inner volume" of the Japanese table tennis world is also very serious, and the last champion and KawaZuki, Ishikawa Yoshijun is also the focus of everyone's attention this year, as for the three doubles, there are also many good hands to participate, wonderful not to be missed!
Since the Beijing Winter Olympics will be held in February, there is a high probability that there will be no large-scale events in the table tennis arena, so the WTT Macau Tournament and the Japanese Table Tennis Championships in January are particularly important. Whatever the outcome of these two events, Chinese and Japanese athletes will be fully trained to prepare for this year's international competition.
So which athletes are you optimistic about winning the opening victory in 2022 and dominating the table tennis scenes of China and Japan? Will he be one of the 16 world champions (12 national table tennis, plus Japan's Ito, Ishikawa Yoshinori, Hirano Miyu, Yoshimura Masaharu Yoshimura)? Feel free to leave a message and write your own predictions!