Today is April 9, only six days before the Macau World Cup, and the men's and women's individual World Cups will return after three years from April 15 to 21 and will be held at the Galaxy Arena in Macau, China. At present, the national table tennis players are also preparing intensively. According to the new competition system introduced by the organizing committee this year, the number of participating players will be increased from the original 16 to 48, and there will no longer be a strict restriction on a country or association can only send 2 people, and a maximum of 4 people can be sent to participate. As the new format stipulates that 46 players qualify through the Continental Cup or World Rankings, the defending champions and the World Junior Championships U19 champions are automatically qualified and do not occupy a quota in the association, and this year Chen Meng and Kuo Man, along with Fan Zhendong and Lin Shidong, will automatically qualify as the defending champions and the World Junior Champions respectively. In this way, the national table tennis will have 6 men and 6 women participating in the World Cup this time. Specifically:
Men's Singles: #, Wang Chuqin, Ma Long, Liang Jingkun, Yi, Lin Shidong
#陈子颖莎, Yen, Wang Yidi, Wang Manyu, Chen Xingtong and Kuo Man
It is not difficult to see from this list that the restructured World Cup not only allows more outstanding players to get the opportunity to participate, but also takes into account that young players like Lin Shidong and Kuo Man can enter the World Cup stage as soon as possible and feel the atmosphere of the World Series.
The format of this World Cup is also very new, although it is still divided into two stages: group stage and knockout stage. However, the first stage of the group stage adopts a four-game system, 48 players are divided into 16 groups for every group of 3, and the score is 4-0, 3-1 or 2-2 for a round-robin match, and finally the group ranking is determined according to the relationship between the players, and a total of 16 players will enter the knockout stage for the first place in the group, and the group stage will be avoided by the association. In this way, a slow-burning athlete like the big fat Liang Jingkun feels more at a loss. Because he doesn't want to play the first two games every time, which is very bad for him.
The second stage of the competition will take the form of a knockout draw. The first place in Group 1 will be placed in slot 1, the first place in Group 2 will be placed in slot 16, and the first place in groups 3 and 4 will be drawn in slots 8 and 9. The first place in groups 5-16 will be randomly drawn to the remaining positions. The second stage of the game adopts a best-of-seven system, and the association does not avoid concessions.
In addition to the format, you may also be concerned about prize money, after all, athletes, especially those from poor countries like Aruna, who play at their own expense, need to support their families. It's not just Aruna bonuses that matter to everyone. It is reported that there is a prize money of 1 million US dollars in this year's World Cup, and it is not known how it will be divided, and I don't know if it is more than before. Like Liu Shiwen, the original World Cup singles prize was 45,000 US dollars, will it be higher this year?
In addition to the prize money, World Cup points are also more attractive. It is reported that in addition to 1,500 world ranking points, the champion can also get 3,000 World Series bonus points, the runner-up can get 1,500 points, and the third place can get 750 points. This is very important for Chen Meng and Wang Manyu, because they are only 210 points apart in the Olympic selection points, and Chen Meng's chance to surpass Wang Manyu may be in this World Cup, after all, there are many masters in the Saudi Grand Slam event in May.
Although there are 48 men and women participating in this World Cup, the main competitors are actually the French teenager Lebrun brothers, especially the younger brother Felix Lebrun, Lin Yunru, Zhang Benzhihe, Hugo, Zhang Yuzhen, Qiu Dang, etc. The women's singles side is mainly Hina Hayata, Miu Hirano and Romanian beauty Szokos, and I feel that Shin Yubin and Tian Zhixi are still a little worse.
In this World Cup, Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng participated as defending champions, but in fact, because Fan Zhendong lost to Lin Shidong and Hugo in two international competitions, Chen Meng lost to Wang Manyu, and I feel that Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin are the favorites to win the championship. Who do you think will win the championship?