It didn't take long for the Table Tennis World Cup to be ushered in, and this event has been suspended since 2021 due to various reasons such as the epidemic. It wasn't until 2023 that this dusty event was restarted again. When it comes to Grand Slams, old fans naturally recognize that the three championships of the Olympics, World Table Tennis Championships and World Cup have been won, rather than the current WTT Grand Slam events. Although table tennis has been restructured for a long time, the Grand Slam, known as the ancient name, must be the yearning of all athletes.
The resumption of the World Cup in Macau is also a big test of training and preparation before the Paris Olympics. The International Table Tennis Federation previously announced the list of participants of the Chinese team:
Women's: Xiao Xiao, Wang Mang, Wang Yandi, Chen Zhao, Chen Xiao, Meng Mang
Men: Wang Chuqin, #, Liang Jingkun, Ma Long, Yi, Lin Shidong
12 will do their best in the World Cup in Macau. Although everyone's goal is to be the ultimate champion, the meaning is not the same. In the last World Cup, Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng were the champions of men's and women's table tennis. I still remember that at that time, I also wrote an article saying that this was the best time for Chen Meng to surpass Zhang Jike and become the fastest Grand Slam, but unfortunately, at the World Table Tennis Championships, Chen Meng still missed the championship and lost to Wang Manyu and fell in the top 4.
With the resumption of the World Cup, this time has become a big opportunity for Sun Yingsha to be a Grand Slam. Last time, Sun Yingsha, the little devil of national table tennis, lost to Chen Meng 1-4 in the final and won the silver medal. But with the passage of time and the growth of technology, Sun Yingsha's strength has now attracted the attention of all Japanese women's table tennis players such as Hina Hayata, Miyu Hirano and others, almost all of whom believe that in order to win gold from the Chinese team, they must defeat Sun Yingsha, and they all regard Sun Yingsha as the number one rival (what was said in the interview, previously reported, is all facts, and there is no fanfare).
coincided with the women's singles final of the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships in Durban, Sun Yingsha defeated Chen Meng 4-2 to win the World Table Tennis Championships, and this year is another Olympic year, and there is a World Cup before the Olympics. Starting from the end of the women's singles final at the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban, which was on May 28, counting the end of the women's singles event at the Paris Olympics on August 3, 2024, a total of 433 days. The ideal way is to think for Sun Yingsha, then it is 12 days less than Zhang Jike's fastest Grand Slam record (445)! For Sun Yingsha, this is nothing more than an opportunity.
The ITTF also expressed its expectations for Sun Yingsha during the World Cup seeding tour, saying: "Sun Yingsha, with a balanced forehand and backhand, strong attacking style of play, is an outstanding representative of the new era of women's technical masculinization, and won the gold medal in the women's team and the silver medal in the women's singles at the Tokyo Olympics. Sun Yingsha has performed well in various competitions in recent years, winning women's singles championships such as WTT Singapore Grand Slam 2023, Durban World Table Tennis Championships, Hangzhou Asian Games, WTT Nagoya Women's Finals, WTT Incheon Championships, etc., and has long occupied the first place in the world rankings. In 2020, she made her debut in the World Cup singles and finished runner-up. This year, Sun Yingsha is undoubtedly one of the strong contenders to hit the World Cup title, and we look forward to her achieving good results. ”
The ITTF is full of expectations for Sun Yingsha. However, time is just our ideal calculation, and I am also very optimistic about Sun Yingsha, but the analysis is a matter of our media people, athletes have to play ball by ball on the field, and fight point by point. I hope Sun Yingsha has no distractions, don't think so much, be firm and strong, and play every ball well.