In the Saudi Arabian Grand Slam tournament in May, Chen Meng and Wang Manyu were the only national table tennis pairs to participate in the doubles competition. The doubles title must be won in this Grand Slam tournament because it is a quota place for the team event at the Olympic Games. Now Wang Manyu is more and more likely to participate in the Olympic singles competition, and Wang Manyu's total Olympic selection points have reached 14,865 points. Chen Meng's total points reached 13,310 points, and Chen Xingtong's total points were 5,965 points.
Chen Meng is more than 1,500 points less than Wang Manyu's total points, and in the eyes of fans, as long as Wang Manyu loses in the Saudi Grand Slam tournament and deducts 3,000 points, Chen Meng will be able to participate in the Olympic singles competition. If Chen Meng keeps not losing in the Saudi Grand Slam next month, and Wang Manyu loses, there will indeed be a significant change in the points of both sides.
Then the problem arises again, Chen Meng surpassed Wang Manyu in points without playing against Hina Hayada in the Saudi Grand Slam tournament, and it is difficult to get a place in the Olympic singles. The problem now is that even if the player's points are reached, he must maintain an advantage over the Japanese table tennis players in order to participate in the Olympic singles competition.
Wang Yidi's example has been obvious before, and Wang Yidi's points and rankings at the Busan Team World Table Tennis Championships far surpassed Wang Manyu. However, Wang Yidi was defeated by Miu Hirano in the women's team final, and although her opponent did not enter the top 10 in the world rankings, she still defeated her higher-ranked opponent.
Therefore, the players selected solely by points and rankings cannot fully cope with the current challenges of foreign wars. Therefore, the national table tennis coaching staff changed the selection rules of the Olympic Games and repeatedly emphasized the importance of foreign wars. Chen Meng defeated Miu Hirano in the World Cup, and will next challenge Hina Hayada in the Saudi Arabia Grand Slam.
If Chen Meng's goal is to compete in the Olympic team event, it is unlikely that he will meet Hina Hayata. Because Hina Hayada was the first singles in the team competition, Chen Meng played doubles in the team competition, and the subsequent singles matches were basically played against Miyu Hirano and Miwa Zhangmoto, and it was true that she couldn't meet Hina Hayata.
If Chen dreams of competing for an Olympic singles spot, he will need to beat Hina Hayada at a Grand Slam event in Saudi Arabia, after all, the two sides won the last time they met. Hina Hayada participates in the singles competition at the Olympics, even if she and Chen Meng are not in the same half of the singles area, it does not mean that the two sides will not fight, what if Hina Hayada reaches the final in the first half of the zone?
Therefore, players participating in the singles competition of the Olympic Games must be sure to win against different types of opponents. It is particularly unsafe to be unsure of winning and want to participate in the Olympic singles competition, not to mention that the current Wang Manyu and Sun Yingsha are in better singles condition, both in terms of age and competition concentration are above Chen Meng.
Now that there are better options for the Olympic singles competition, the coaching staff will of course want to select younger players and players who are more capable of winning the singles competition. For Chen Meng, it is more suitable to compete for a place in the Olympic team event, because the coaching staff only let Chen Meng and Wang Manyu participate in the women's doubles competition of the Saudi Grand Slam tournament, which is to be optimistic about the tacit cooperation of the pair.
For Chen Meng, as long as Saudi Arabia wins the doubles competition in the Grand Slam tournament, he can get a place in the Olympic team event. Because the Saudi Arabia Grand Slam event is the last event to be selected by the national table tennis, the national table tennis will announce the women's team's Olympic quota after this event.
As long as Chen Meng does not lose by a big score in the doubles match, he will be able to successfully get the place in the team competition. In fact, now not only the singles competition of foreign wars is facing competition, but also the doubles competition is facing the impact of foreign players, and the challenges of the national table tennis combination are also increasing. In fact, there are more people to choose from in doubles in national table tennis, Chen Xingtong, Qian Tianyi, and Kuo Man all have good doubles ability.
For Chen Meng, doubles seems to have no competitors, and once doubles loses, there will be many competitors. Therefore, Chen Meng also has the pressure of not being able to lose in doubles, in fact, Chen Meng's game in the Saudi Grand Slam tournament is the most stressful. Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu only need to play well in foreign wars, especially if Wang Manyu loses, he may not necessarily miss the singles quota for the Olympic Games.
After all, Wang Manyu is currently the most technologically advanced in the women's team, and her ability to resist pressure is super strong. The coaching staff will not easily change the selection of singles at the Olympic Games, just like Ma Long can get a quota place in the Olympic team competition, the main reason is that there is no substitute. Chen Meng still has to cooperate with Wang Manyu in the doubles competition, and Wang Manyu's doubles performance is particularly crucial for Chen Meng to participate in the Olympic team competition.
If Chen Meng does not perform well in the doubles competition of the Saudi Grand Slam tournament, Chen Xingtong will have a chance to participate in the team event at the Olympic Games. This player has a great advantage over Japanese table tennis players, and Chen Xingtong is not inferior to Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu in terms of strength. Against Japanese table tennis players, they still have an advantage in speed, and they are not afraid to fight for speed with Japanese table tennis players, and their defense is thicker.
Although the time node of the national table tennis Olympic selection is on May 7, the Chongqing Grand Slam event at the end of May and early June is also an important competition. If the main force of national table tennis loses in the Chongqing Grand Slam event, I believe that the coaching staff will also adjust the Olympic lineup.
All foreign battles in national table tennis are the most important selection criteria, and points do not represent the real level of foreign battles of players. Therefore, the national table tennis women's team is very flexible in the selection of the Olympic squad in this Olympic cycle, and fans still have to look at the performance of the players, and it cannot be considered that the women's team lineup has stabilized now, because everything is possible.