Looking back at the year of 2023|National table tennis, it is the norm to win big games, and it is surprising to lose gold in an upset
With the end of the Table Tennis Super League Finals, the competition tasks of the national table tennis players in 2023 have all ended.
In 2023, the Chinese table tennis team has experienced major events such as the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban, the Hangzhou Asian Games, and the Chengdu Mixed Team World Cup, and has also contributed wonderful performances in the Pyeongchang Asian Championships, Chengdu Universiade, WTT Series and other competitions.
Overall, national table tennis will continue to show strong dominance in 2023, and their leading position in the world table tennis is still unshakable. At the same time, the national table tennis also has an unexpected "overturn", which should be paid attention to.
The main lineup of national table tennis has basically not changed. On the one hand, this shows that the state of the national table tennis players is relatively stable, but on the other hand, it also shows that our newcomers are not growing fast.
There are some young players who have begun to emerge, which is also worthy of our vigilance.
Below, let's review the main performance of national table tennis in 2023.
WTT Singapore Grand Slam –
Although this event is young, the importance is very high.
Its points are on par with the Olympic Games and the World Table Tennis Championships, and its prize money is the highest among all table tennis events.
Therefore, the WTT Singapore Grand Slam can be regarded as the first important battle for national table tennis in 2023.
In this competition, the champions of the five events are:
Men's singles champion: Fan Zhendong
Women's Singles Champion: Sun Yingsha
Men's Doubles Champion: Fan Zhendong/Wang Chuqin
Women's Doubles Champion: Sun Yingsha/Wang Manyu
Mixed Doubles Champion: Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha
Sun Yingsha won three championships, and Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin won two championships each. The five championships were divided by 4 people, which basically reflects which players in the current national table tennis team are in good condition and have heavy tasks.
Although the championship list is not shocking, there are some other players who bring surprises and surprises.
Qian Tianyi and Zhang Rui teamed up to reach the semifinals, proving that the non-main players who eased the ta/15 can also play at a high level in foreign battles.
Qian Tianyi reached No. 7 in the world ranking at the end of the year with the high points brought by the runner-up of the Singapore Grand Slam.
World Table Tennis Championships in Durban –
For national table tennis, in addition to the Olympic Games, the most important event is the World Table Tennis Championships.
The last champion, the men's doubles champion, temporarily left the Iranian Cup behind.
This time, the national table tennis won 5 championships as expected, and the list of champions is as follows:
Men's singles champion: Fan Zhendong
Women's Singles Champion: Sun Yingsha
Men's Doubles Champion: Fan Zhendong/Wang Chuqin
Women's Doubles Champion: Chen Meng/Wang Yidi
Mixed Doubles Champion: Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha
If you count the two trophies of the men's team and the women's team, the seven major trophies of the World Table Tennis Championships are all in the hands of the national table tennis.
The national table tennis swept the top 4 in men's singles (Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, Ma Long, Liang Jingkun) and occupied 3 of the top 4 in women's singles (Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng, Chen Xingtong).
The national table tennis won the championship in the three doubles events, but the opponents in the finals were all foreign association combinations, of which the women's doubles and mixed doubles both lost foreign wars.
These circumstances also laid the groundwork for several defeats of national table tennis in the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Hangzhou Asian Games——
Although the athletes in the Hangzhou Asian Games are all from Asia, the event points are not high.
But since we are the host, the main competitors of national table tennis are also from Asia.
Therefore, the table tennis event of the Hangzhou Asian Games is still very interesting.
There are a total of 7 table tennis events in the Hangzhou Asian Games, and the national table tennis has won 6 championships.
Men's Singles Champion: Wang Chuqin
Women's Singles Champion: Sun Yingsha
Men's Doubles Champion: Fan Zhendong/Wang Chuqin
Mixed Doubles Champion: Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha
Men's Team Champion: China
Women's team champion: China
The only gold medal lost by the national table tennis was the women's doubles gold medal.
Winning the national table tennis is a routine operation, and losing is big news.
On September 30, the men's doubles pair Liang Jingkun/Pregnant Woman Said, and the women's doubles pair Sun Yingsha/Wang Manyu and Oh/Wang Yidi lost one after another.
The men's doubles defeat is understandable, and the two women's doubles pairs composed of the top four players in the women's singles world lost on the same day, announcing that the national table tennis team missed the women's doubles gold medal in advance, which is shocking.
Although men's and women's doubles are not Olympic sports, such a "rollover" incident still reminds the national table tennis that it should never be taken lightly.
Chengdu Mixed Team World Cup——
From December 4 to December 10, 2023, the first ITTF Mixed Team World Cup will be held in Chengdu.
Tennis, badminton and other events have mixed team competitions, and the holding of the ITTF Mixed Team World Cup has also made the puzzle of table tennis events more complete.
Players who have won 8 out of 15 games, who have decided the champion by round-robin points, and who have completed the mixed doubles will not be able to participate in the singles competition...... Various innovative rules have also added a lot of highlights to this new event.
Of course, no matter what the rules are, there is still no suspense for the national table tennis to win the championship.
In the two stages of the group stage, the national table tennis won the championship with a record of 9 wins.
The specific matchups and scores are as follows:
China 8-0 Sweden
China 8-0 Hong Kong
China 8-2 Puerto Rico
China 8-1 Slovakia
China 8-1 Chinese Taipei
China 8-1 France
China 8-1 Germany
China 8-5 Japan
China 8-1 South Korea
It was the Japanese team that caused the most trouble to the national table tennis, except for Japan and Puerto Rico, the rest of the teams failed to get 2 points from the national table tennis.
In addition to the above-mentioned competitions, the national table tennis players are almost not idle throughout 2023.
In the Pyeongchang Asian Championships and the Chengdu Universiade, the national table tennis won 7 championships. In the higher-level WTT series, the national table tennis players will basically not let the championship go by.
After talking about the overall performance of national table tennis in major events, let's take a look at the individual performance of the national table tennis players.
Men's Singles –
Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, Ma Long and Liang Jingkun are ranked in the top 4 in the world, Lin Gaoyuan is ranked 7th and Lin Shidong is ranked 9th.
Fan Zhendong won the two biggest "experience packages" of the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban and the WTT Singapore Grand Slam, and he also scored a lot of points in the WTT Xinxiang Championship and Ljubljana, and he also reached the finals of the Asian Championships and Asian Games.
Fan Zhendong is ranked No. 1 in the world, which can be said to be well deserved.
Wang Chuqin often competes with Fan Zhendong for the men's singles championship, and in the men's singles final of the Hangzhou Asian Games, Wang Chuqin defeated Fan Zhendong 4-3 to win the gold medal, which is also the most important men's singles championship he won in 2023.
Wang Chuqin has also shouldered the heavy responsibilities in the men's doubles and mixed doubles events, and has been a consistent performer. He won 4 gold medals (men's singles, men's doubles, mixed doubles, men's team) at the Hangzhou Asian Games, and also showed his true character as a "model worker".
Ma Long is still ranked third in the world, and although he did not win a particularly important singles title this year, he still maintained the advantage of foreign players, and Ma Long also played an important role in the mixed team competition at the end of the year.
Next, Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan, Lin Shidong and others basically played at a normal level in the past year, but there were not too many surprises.
Women's Singles –
Sun Yingsha, Wang Yidi, Wang Manyu and Reis are ranked in the top 4 in the world, Chen Xingtong is 6th, Qian Tianyi is 7th, Zhang Rui is 13th, Kuo Man is 19th, and Fan Siqi is 20th.
The group advantage of Chinese women's table tennis is very obvious, covering the top 4 in the world, accounting for 6 in the top 10 and 9 in the top 20.
Sun Yingsha's performance in 2023 is phenomenal. Like Fan Zhendong, he also ate the two "2000-point experience packages" of the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban and the WTT Singapore Grand Slam.
In addition, Sun Yingsha also scored 1,500 points in the WTT Finals, 1,000 points in the WTT Xinxiang Championship, 600 points each in the WTT Star Challenge Ljubljana and Lanzhou, and 500 points in the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Sun Yingsha's dominance in 2023 goes without saying, and the points gap is leading, which is well deserved.
In addition to Sun Yingsha, the rest of the national table tennis women have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Wang Yidi is ranked No. 2 in the world at the end of the year, and in terms of points, she is undoubtedly successful. She won the women's doubles championship at the World Table Tennis Championships with Chen Meng, and she also won the national championship and the Frankfurt championship.
But she lost to Hina Hayada twice at the World Table Tennis Championships and Asian Games, which still makes her 2023 a serious shortcoming.
Wang Manyu has had her ups and downs in the past two years, although her points at the end of 2023 were surpassed by Wang Yidi, but in the eyes of many people, Wang Manyu, who is in good shape, is still one of the strongest women's singles players in the world.
She defeated Sun Yingsha in both the Asian Championships final and the Table Tennis Super League final. In other words, although Wang Manyu's points ranking is not very stable, she is still the most capable women's singles player to compete with Sun Yingsha.
Chen Meng's role in national table tennis is a bit similar to Ma Long, and it is difficult for her to win the women's singles championship in important tournaments now, but she is still a frequent visitor to the semifinals and finals.
The rest of the female players, Chen Xingtong, Qian Tianyi, Zhang Rui and others, also have good results in foreign battles, but there are too many Chinese female table tennis masters, and it is difficult for them to get too many opportunities to perform in the international arena.
Doubles –
Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha is undoubtedly the most valued doubles pair in the current national table tennis team.
Not only have they won the mixed doubles championship in several major tournaments, but they have also been the pioneers of the mixed team World Cup.
In order to ensure that they could play in mixed doubles, they even reduced their singles appearances.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha will definitely be aiming for the gold medal.
The national table tennis team has the top four players in the world in men's and women's singles, but their advantage in the men's and women's doubles events is not reassuring.
At the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, we lost the men's doubles gold medal. At this year's Asian Games in Hangzhou, we lost the women's doubles gold medal again.
It is difficult for the foreign association to challenge the Chinese team in the singles event, which is why they tend to delve into doubles very deeply.
At the last Tokyo Olympics, we lost gold in the mixed doubles event.
Several defeats in the doubles event of the Hangzhou Asian Games should sound the alarm for national table tennis.
Finally, let's talk about the newcomers of national table tennis.
Through the previous introduction, you must have found such a thing.
The main force of national table tennis in 2023 has hardly changed compared with the previous Olympic cycle.
The men's team happened, Wang Chuqin, Ma Long, and the women's team Sun Yingsha, She, Wang Manyu, these two sets of main voices are still stable.
Even if there are other players who occasionally surpass the above players in points, it is these players who are the most trustworthy in the most important and crucial competitions.
Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan, Wang Yidi, Chen Xing and others are not newcomers, although they are also improving, it is difficult to replace those main players.
Lin Shidong and Kuo Man are the best of the male and female rookies respectively, and their mixed doubles combination has also been cultivated by the coaching staff.
However, if one day veterans like Ma Long and Chen Meng retire, and Fan Zhendong, Sun Yingsha and other main players are not at their peak, who can immediately top the newcomers below?
2023 has ended, and as soon as 2024 begins, the national table tennis will go to the arena non-stop.
From January 3 to January 20, the national table tennis team will participate in the WTT Men's Finals, WTT Star Challenge and WTT Regular Challenge in Doha.
Looking forward to the Chinese table tennis team in 2024, bring us more wonderful performances!