The Table Tennis World Cup is about to officially kick off on April 15, 2024, which is also the first singles competition to be held since 2020, which naturally attracts the attention of countless fans. For the twelve national table tennis players participating in this year's competition, everyone's goals are different, some want to tie the historical record, some want to be crowned again, and more want to achieve zero breakthroughs, let's take stock of it!
Fan Zhendong: He has reached the top of the singles four times, hitting Liu Shiwen's record of five crowns.
Fan Zhendong is a big winner of the World Cup, having been crowned singles champion four times in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020 (note: he did not participate in 2017), tying the previous record held by Ma Lin, and the two are tied for the most singles gold medals in the event among male table tennis players. However, if both men and women are counted, the player who has won the most singles championships in the World Cup is Liu Shiwen, who has reached the top five times, so Fan Zhendong has the possibility of equaling Liu Shiwen and creating a new historical record this time.
Ma Long: He has won the crown twice before, and he is looking forward to achieving a triple crown.
The veteran Ma Long is the athlete who has won the most world championships in the history of table tennis, including seven gold medals in the three singles competitions, but relatively speaking, the performance of the World Cup is the most inferior: the number of summits is not as good as the World Table Tennis Championships, and the success rate of winning the championship is not as good as the Olympic Games. For him, whose form has declined significantly recently, it is indeed difficult to achieve the Triple Crown in the context of a significant "expansion" of singles in this year's World Cup, and he can only take one step at a time.
Chen Meng: At present, the only main force of the national table tennis women's team that has won the championship is striving to defend the title.
Affected by the three-year suspension of the World Cup singles competition, many young rookies in national table tennis have no chance to win the championship, and the winners of the last competition are Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng. Compared with Fan Zhendong, who has reached the top four times, Chen Meng has only won the gold medal once in 2020, and this time she naturally wants to defend her title, but since she won the double championship at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Chen Meng's state has gradually declined, and now it is very difficult for her to win the singles gold medal in the three major competitions again, and she is about to face a severe test.
Wang Chuqin, Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan, Lin Shidong, Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi, Chen Xingtong, Kuo Man: I have not won the championship so far, and I hope to make zero breakthroughs.
Since the World Cup singles competition has been suspended for three years in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and each association has only had a maximum of two men and two women in a total of four places, so the younger athletes of national table tennis lack the opportunity to compete in the World Cup singles.
For Chen Meng and Wang Manyu, this competition has other important significance.
According to the Paris Olympic selection rules announced by the Chinese Table Tennis Association, the Table Tennis World Cup is a key inspection event, and the champion will not only get 1500 world ranking points, but also 3000 team points, and other results also have different points rewards, but they will face a penalty of deducting points if they lose the foreign war - at present, Chen Meng and Wang Manyu's total Olympic selection points are only 210 points apart, and the second-ranked Wang Manyu has little advantage, so the result of the World Cup may affect the next Olympic singles quota between the two, which is of great significance.
So who can have the last laugh in this year's World Cup? Welcome to leave a message and write your prediction!