There is no major movement in the table tennis world in 2022, but on February 12, the Japan Table Tennis Association officially announced the list of athletes for the 2022 Round of 32, with The Women's World Ranking No. 3 Player Ito Andumasa ito, the men's World No. 4 athlete Zhang Benzhi and other participants, the Olympic main players Ishikawa Yoshinori, Hirano Miyu, Niwa Takashi and the national champion Hayata Hina and others are on the list.
It is reported that the results of this competition will provide points for the selection of the Japanese team for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. In addition, athletes who win the singles championship will directly qualify for this year's team world table tennis championships and Asian Games, which deserves everyone's attention!
Japan's Round of 32 is a bit like a simplified version of their national championships, similar to the World Cup for the World Championships, the Asian Cup for the Asian Championships, because there is a "CUP" in the full name, so it is sometimes called the "Japan Cup", 32 athletes from men and women each participate in the singles championship, and the number and time of participants are also compressed a lot.
Note: As many as 972 people registered for this year's Japan National Championships, from February 23 to 30, and the Round of 32 will end in just two days, specifically scheduled for March 5 to 6, and then the higher-ranked players in the team will rush to Singapore to compete in the first WTT Grand Slam.
The most interesting athlete of this competition is naturally Ito Mimako, followed by Hirano Miyu, because Tomokazu Jangmoto, Takashi Niwa, and Yoshijun Ishikawa have recently appeared in the T League, while Ito Mimachi did not join at all, and Hirano Miyu was diagnosed with the new crown before, so now he is still hanging up the free card to recuperate, so everyone is also very much looking forward to seeing them return to the field.
Judging from the current pattern of Japanese table tennis, the competition for men is very fierce, the woman is almost the Ito Mimachi family, Hina Hayata follows, the situation is relatively clear, so at present, Zhang Benzhi and the pressure is huge, Ito Mimachi is sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai, ishikawa Yoshijun and others still need to work hard.
According to the previous announcement of the Japan Table Tennis Association, the singles champion of the Top 32 Cup will directly qualify for the Chengdu Team World Table Tennis Championships, and will be selected for the singles list of the Hangzhou Asian Games, of which the former may be relatively more attractive, as for the Asian Games, the Japanese team has never attached great importance to it, and I don't know what kind of lineup will be sent this year.
Of course, all of the above is certainly insignificant compared to the Olympic quota: in the case of Mizutani Hayabusa retiring, Niwa Takashi, Ishikawa Yoshinori, and Hirano Miyu in a significant decline, more Japanese table tennis players want to seize the opportunity to qualify for the new Olympic Games, so will there be a big dark horse? Let's wait and see!