From January 8 to 13, 2024, the WTT Doha Star Challenge will be held, and 6 national table tennis players have been selected for the lineup, namely Wang Manyu, Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng, Wang Yidi, Qian Tianyi, and Chen Xingtong. In preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the ITTF announced that it has temporarily lifted the registration restrictions for WTT-related events. Because the general challenge and the star challenge basically adopt the registration mode of 20 limited to 6 or 20 limited to 3, some players are unable to register because of their low ranking.
However, some players must increase their points and rankings, in order to allow more players to participate in the competition of the Olympic Games, the ITTF will cancel the registration restrictions for all kinds of competitions before August, so this time the star challenge of the national table tennis can have six people selected. Although the registration restrictions have been relaxed, according to the ITTF regulations, the number of applicants for each association is six, including the qualifying round and the main competition.
This is already very good, after all, the number of participants in some associations will not be too much, and the national table tennis report is full of six people, and it feels like there are too many people. There are also many foreign contestants participating in this competition, and Zhang Benmeihe also got the opportunity to sign up for the competition. There are three Japanese table tennis players who signed up for the competition this time, namely Hina Hayata, Miyu Nagasaki, and Miwa Zhangmoto.
Miyu Kihara, Mimato Ito, and Miu Hirano will all be preparing for the All-Day Championship in January, so none of them have signed up. However, now Zhang Benmei and Hina Hayada are already the top Japanese table tennis players, and these two players are enough to ensure the gold content of this star challenge. In particular, Hina Hayada has participated in international competitions continuously in order to increase her points and rankings.
Therefore, who will play against these two Japanese table tennis players in this Star Challenge is particularly crucial, and last time Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha narrowly defeated Hina Hayada and Miwa Zhangmoto. Will Zhang Benmeihe fight Sun Yingsha this time? I believe the fans are looking forward to it, Zhang Benmei and this finals were reversed by Sun Yingsha in a tiebreaker, and they were very unwilling to lose.
This time, Zhang Benmei made a comeback and continued to sign up for the Star Challenge, just to impact Sun Yingsha. Of course, what Zhang Benmeihe doesn't know is that if she is assigned to Wang Manyu's half of the district, can Wang Manyu be dragged into the tiebreaker? I believe that fans are also looking forward to these two fighting again, Zhang Benmeihe's progress is too fast.
This player has now become the main rival of national table tennis, although fans are not optimistic about the future of Zhang Benmeihe, but at this stage, there is really no way to limit the rise of this opponent. Miwa Zhang's growth environment is particularly relaxed, because Japanese table tennis aims to cultivate young players, and is willing to see young players replace old players.
Zhang Benmeihe now only needs to make up for his shortcomings quickly, this player is an important period for learning Xi, and the speed of making up for his shortcomings is quite fast. National table tennis should pay attention to this competitor, and only by admitting that competitors are excellent can they be more excellent. Zhang Benmeihe was not convinced by the loss in the finals, because she was still a few points away from being able to win.
In the Star Challenge, she wants to play against Sun Yingsha unless she is assigned to the same half of the district, but there are many national table tennis players, and Zhang Benmei and Zhang Benmei are expected to play against other players in the Star Challenge. The only two players who can't fight each other is Wang Yidi, and the other will be Chen Meng. These two players are defensive and counterattack-type plays, and it is indeed difficult to fight against Zhang Benmeihe.
Miwa Zhang's hitting speed is too fast, and it is completely the return period of hitting, so it must be dealt with by players with good offensive ability on the first three boards. Why does Kuo Man have such an advantage over Zhang Benmeihe because she has a wealth of tactical changes and can fully mobilize Zhang Benmeihe's position.
Sun Yingsha couldn't catch Zhang Benmeihe's serve well in the first three boards, so she was very passive in the follow-up games. This problem is actually very prominent, of course, this is the player's own technical structural problem, and Sun Yingsha is difficult to avoid. Sun Yingsha's remaining advantage now is in the stability of holding the ball, once Zhang Benmeihe's skills tend to mature and stable, the gap between the two sides will be gone.
And will Hina Hayada still fight Chen Meng? At present, it is not very likely. It should really be Wang Yidi who should fight against Hina Hayata, after all, this player has a stronger impact on Wang Yidi. Although Wang Yidi is now ranked quite high, whether it is the previous championship or the year-end finals, she has not played against the main force of Japanese table tennis.
Chen Meng's battle against Hina Hayada is also quite difficult, so the number of battles against Hina Hayada will be reduced in the future, and the chances of the two sides meeting in the future are not great. Chen Meng is a veteran after all, and the coaching staff will not easily let Chen Meng take risks against opponents who are too strong. In the finals, fortunately, Chen Meng adjusted his tactics after changing his jersey, otherwise the opponent would have won.
Wang Manyu, Chen Xingtong, and Qian Tianyi also qualified for the competition, and Chen Xingtong's impact on Wang Manyu was too strong. Her kind of oppressive offense made Wang Manyu extremely passive in the process of playing and holding the ball. If the two meet in advance in the Star Challenge, it will be quite suspenseful who will enter the semi-finals.
The ITTF is also good at creating suspense, and if Wang Manyu continues to play against Chen Xingtong in the Star Challenge, I believe it will be an extremely exciting game. Due to the large number of national table tennis players participating in this Star Challenge, it will inevitably become an internal competition between national table tennis players in the end.
In the future, the national table tennis will fix six people to participate together, which can indeed increase the overall competitive advantage of foreign wars. The finals are the best example, because there are many national table tennis players participating in the competition, they directly won the top four. In the Doha Star Challenge in January, the national table tennis is also looking forward to winning the championship and runner-up in advance.