On February 10, Beijing time, the International Table Tennis Federation and the World Table Tennis Federation officially announced the list of athletes for the first WTT Grand Slam in March, confirming that the 12 main players of the national table tennis Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Liang Jingkun, Xu Xin, Lin Gaoyuan, Wang Chuqin, Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi, Chen Xingtong, Liu Shiwen will play, but the world champion Zhu Yuling is not on the list, regrettably lost.
In addition to the Chinese team, the top masters of the foreign association will also move this time, including Zhang Benzhihe, Ito Mimachi and other Japanese fierce opponents: the peak battle is about to be staged, and the fans and friends can feast their eyes again!
The WTT Grand Slam athlete qualification list has been released as early as a few days ago, but the official relevant announcement is lagging behind, because eligibility is not the same as definitely participating, such as some associations exceed the quota, some athletes may also decide to withdraw, and there are variables in the future.
On the whole, the tickets to the Grand Slam are basically linked to the world rankings, as long as they can enter the top 150 and rank in the top 6 or so of the team, they will be able to participate, so everyone can guess seven seven eight eight.
At present, the list of the Chinese team is the most interesting and the most unpredictable, because we have 32 people (half of men and women) who are qualified, so we must be screened, and the results are that in addition to Zhu Yuling, the top 6 athletes in the world ranking on the team have been successfully shortlisted.
Among them, the joining of Ma Long, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen is undoubtedly the most exciting, because they did not even participate in the World Table Tennis Championships last year, and in recent months, they have only appeared in the WTT Macau Tournament without points, so from time to time there will be news of their imminent retirement. But if the three of them play in the Grand Slam this time, the rumors will not be broken.
Among the veterans, Liu Shiwen's situation is more delicate: on the one hand, she is currently only ranked 17th in the world, in addition to ding ning, who has retired, there are 6 teammates in front of her, so she may not be able to qualify; on the other hand, the competitive pressure of the women's team is greater than that of the men's team, and the core position of Ma Long and Xu Xin has not wavered, but Liu Shiwen has been difficult to rank in the top three.
However, Zhu Yuling, who is currently ranked 16th in the world, is in a worse situation, because she has recently faded out of the field longer, and she has been admitted to a cancer hospital for medical reasons, and this year's WTT Macau competition has not registered, and now she has lost the Grand Slam, and when she will return is still unknown.
In terms of foreign associations, the world's top ten players are also in the announcement of the International Table Tennis Federation and the World Table Tennis Federation, of which the men are Hugo, Zhang Benzhihe, Ocharov, Lin Yunru, Pol, and the women are Ito Mimako, Hayata Hina, Du Kaixuan, Ishikawa Yoshinori, Feng Tianwei, Tian Zhixi, and there are many good players from the top ten.
In general, the strength of men's table tennis in the foreign association should not be underestimated, and there is a possibility of upsetting the Chinese team at any time; the pressure of national table tennis is relatively small in women's table tennis, the threat of Ito Mimachi and Hayata Hina is also within the controllable range, and the strength of other opponents is relatively inferior.
For Liu Guoliang and the national table tennis coaching staff, they can also make a better list of participants by doing nothing now, but it is not excluded that they want to continue to train new people, so they may not necessarily send athletes according to the scheme of world rankings. In particular, in April, this year's "big test" - the World Table Tennis Championships will be held, so the list of Grand Slams may be closely related to the World Table Tennis Championships.
So what do you think the Chinese team will send the above players to participate in the table tennis conference in March? Feel free to leave a comment and write your guess, then let's sit back and wait for the results to come out!