On 10 February, the World Table Tennis Federation officially announced some of the entries for the inaugural WTT Singapore Grand Slam. According to the announcement, the top 10 players in the world ranking led by Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha will gather in Lion City to compete for the crown of the first WTT Grand Slam winner. The three veterans Ma Long, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen will all go to Singapore, and fierce opponents including Ito Mimachi and Zhang Benzhihe will also participate.
The Singapore Grand Slam will be held from 7 to 20 March with 64 singles players, 24 doubles pairs and 16 mixed doubles pairs for men and women, with a total prize money of up to US$2 million. The singles champion will win $100,000, the doubles champion combination will win $12,000, and will also earn up to 2,000 championship points. Both the prize money and the points have a huge appeal to the top players.
According to the list released by the World Table Tennis Federation, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Calderano, Zhang Benzhihe, Liang Jingkun, Ochalov, Lin Yunru, Boer, Xu Xin and Lin Gaoyuan, the top 10 in the men's table tennis world, will all participate. Aruna, the world's highest-ranked African player of all time, also confirmed the competition. Although Wang Chuqin's name was not mentioned, there should be no suspense in the big head competition.
In the women's singles, the world's top 10 Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng, Ito Mimachi, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi, Hayata Xina, Du Kaixuan, Ishikawa Yoshizumi, Feng Tianwei and Tian Zhixi were in the list. In addition, Chen Xingtong and Liu Shiwen, as well as the host player Yu Mengyu confirmed the competition.
That is to say, the 7 Olympic champions of national table tennis will all compete in this Grand Slam event.
In last year's World Cup in Singapore, Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha topped the singles championship. However, in the subsequent Macau Championship, Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha failed to reach the final, among them, Fan Zhendong lost to Xu Yingbin, Sun Yingsha was defeated by Liu Shiwen, and Wang Chuqin and Wang Manyu won the singles championship. Returning to Singapore this time, can Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha, who ranked first in the world, continue the good fortune of the World Cup?
For Ma Long, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen, this trip to Singapore is also the first time to compete abroad after the Tokyo Olympics. In the Macau Championship in January, Ma Long lost to Wang Chuqin and was out early; Xu Xin/Liu Shiwen won the mixed doubles title, and the two also had outstanding performances in singles, of which Xu Xin stopped in the men's singles round of 4 and Liu Shiwen won the women's singles runner-up.
For fans, this Singapore match can finally see a number of fierce opponents playing, and the game is destined to be wonderful. In particular, Ito Mimachi, who has been closed for a long time, is finally going to challenge the national table tennis again, and it is expected that who is the vanguard of blocking Ito Mimachi?