On April 17, Beijing time, the 2024 Macau ITTF Men's and Women's World Cup, controversy broke out in the group stage, Zhang Benzhihe drew 2-2 with Jonatan Grote, and the official website once showed that Jonatan Grote won the first place, but WTT then said that Tomokazu Zhang became the first in the group and advanced to the knockout round by virtue of the small score advantage with Jonatan Grote. Subsequently, Jonatan Grote broke out a lot of details, causing controversy.
In the men's singles group 10, Tomokazu Zhang was the seeded player and the favorite to advance, but in the face of Jonatan Grote, Tomokazu Zhang fell behind 0-2, which made him very passive, but he won the third and fourth games, and won the third and fourth games, with a small score of 35-33. Tomokazu was on his knees after the match in celebration, while Jonatan Grote was a little disappointed, as it looked like Tomokazu Haramoto had topped the group and Jonatan Grote was second and missed out on the knockout round.
However, the official later showed that Jonatan Grote ranked first because he had the advantage of the total small points, that is, the total points scored in two games, and Tomokazu Zhang was second. If this ranking is followed, Zhang Benzhihe will miss the top 16. Then, the plot reversed again, and WTT said that Tomokazu Haramoto became the top of the group by virtue of the small score advantage against Jonatan Grote, advancing to the second stage, which caused an uproar.
In fact, the initial judgment of the two players was the same, that is, Tomokazu Zhang was promoted, and Jonatan Grote was second in the group, but the official showed that Jonatan Grote rekindled hope. Jonatan Grote then spoke up with the words: "First I thought I was out of the tournament, then we looked at the official ITTF results and it showed that I had won the group. Then the ITTF media asked me what it felt like to win the group and what I expected for the rest of the game, so I thought I must have won the group. Then, the ITTF changed the official result and I was second in the group, thanks to the ITTF for stifling my mental health.
It can be seen from this passage that Jonatan Grote was very helpless, at first he thought he was out, but the official gave him hope, and instantly extinguished the hope and made him angry. In fact, many players complained about the new format, such as Qiu Dang, after Jonatan Grote spoke publicly, including Qiu Dang, Francesca, Felix Lebrun, Moregaard, Falke, Karnak, Samara, Diaconu, Walser, Ionescu, Ueda Ren, Zarif and many other table tennis celebrities praised and expressed their support for Jonatan Grote, which put the ITTF and WTT under great pressure.
Subsequently, the ITTF officially left a message and apologized to Jonatan Grote, the original words were that there was indeed a bug in our system, which briefly showed the incorrect ranking after the match, and the ITTF also reiterated the rules of the game, and finally said that we sincerely apologize to you for this situation. It should be said that the attitude of the ITTF is very good, although this matter is a big trouble, but all players and fans will be more aware of the rules of this competition!