There are less than 100 days left until the opening of the Paris Olympics. Table tennis is one of the Olympic sports that attracts the most attention from Chinese people. On the one hand, because table tennis is a national sport, it is given a certain special significance. On the other hand, in the era of self-media, many main players of national table tennis have broken the circle and become traffic stars. The surging cheers at the game site and the "fighting" between fans of different players on the online platform were all tossed and turned. What's more, the rise of players from foreign associations has even broken through the defense line of the main players of national table tennis many times, and there are only two places for the Olympic singles national table tennis, which makes the game more suspenseful, and more people naturally pay attention.
The Olympics are like the college entrance examination for table tennis, but it is more brutal than the college entrance examination. The cycle of cultivating talents in national table tennis is based on the Olympic Games, which is generally 4 years, so many people miss it once, and it is likely that they will miss it for a lifetime. The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021 directly leads to the Paris Olympics cycle of only three years, and there is almost no time to train newcomers.
The national table tennis mixed doubles has been confirmed to be Sun Yingsha/Wang Chuqin, while the men's singles Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong, and the women's singles Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu have all locked the top two in the national table tennis Olympic selection points;
So if such a staffing is to go to Paris, what will be the impact of the 5 individual events of national table tennis?
1. Mixed doubles
At the Tokyo Olympics, the mixed doubles championship was taken away by the Japanese team's Misei Ito and Hayabusa Mizutani, and the national table tennis lost not only the first gold medal in the mixed doubles Olympics, but also the opportunity to go down in the history of table tennis.
In the Paris Olympics, the national table tennis must be ashamed, and the mixed doubles championship must be in the bag. So from the very beginning, it was almost decided that the pair of Sun Yingsha/Wang Chuqin would be a trifecta, even if they knew that they might have to do three things.
Those who can pose a certain threat to the "Shatou" combination are Tomokazu Zhangmoto/Hina Hayada of the Japanese team and Shin Yubin/Lin Zhongxun of the South Korean team, but Tomokazu Zhangmoto's impact is not as good as before, so the Japanese combination is likely to not be able to even do it with the Korean combination. And the best-of-seven games are not like the usual best-of-five games, and the chance of an upset is very small. As long as "Sha Tou" plays normally, the mixed doubles championship is almost in the bag.
2. Men's singles
Men's singles is the single event that has been hit the hardest by national table tennis. Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong are both more than impactful, slightly lacking in stability, and have lost a lot of foreign wars in the Paris Olympic cycle, and the dominance of national table tennis in this event is not as good as before.
Wang Chuqin has lost players such as Lin Zhongxun, Zhang Yuzhen, Lin Yunru, Zhang Benzhihe, etc., and Fan Zhendong has lost to Alex Lebrun, Zhang Benzhihe, etc., all of whom will participate in the men's singles at the Paris Olympics. Therefore, in the men's singles competition of the Paris Olympics, as long as the champion has not yet been decided, we all have to be vigilant and courageous, and it is best to prepare a bottle of "quick-acting heart-saving pills", it seems that every game has the possibility of an upset.
3. Women's singles
Sun Yingsha has lost two foreign fights in the past three years, to Miu Hirano and Aishika Mukherjee, but the latter is likely to not qualify for the Olympic singles. Wang Manyu's opponents in foreign battles were Du Kaiqin, Yuan Jianan, and A. Diaz.
Although Miu Hirano could not be ranked in the top 10 in the women's singles world and lost to lower-ranked players from time to time, her impact on national table tennis was no less than Hina Hayada and Miwa Zhangmoto. Among the three Olympic players in the Japanese women's table tennis team, Miu Hirano is the main player who has won the national table tennis the most times, and she has also accumulated more confidence. Miu Hirano has experienced career lows, but the key is that she can get back on her feet, which makes her mentally more mature and resilient. What's more, Miu Hirano is the only player among the three who has Olympic experience, and she has more experience.
Hina Hayada tends to play with strength, there are not many changes, she is used to hitting hard, and she may not be easy to upset weaker opponents, but it also makes it easier for national table tennis players to deal with, and she is very passive when she grasps the weakness of her forehand and outputs wildly. Miu Hirano, on the other hand, is more variable, her bottom line for losing is lower than Hina Hayata, but the ceiling is also higher than hers. Miyu Hirano has a smooth backhand connection, a flat and fast backhand, and many small skills, flexible line changes, Sun Yingsha was entangled in the women's singles final of the 2023 WTT Zagreb Challenger, which eventually led to a 3-4 upset and lost the championship.
Of the 3 players Wang Manyu lost, it was in 2021 that Du Kaiqin lost, and now Du Kaiqin has regressed to 49th in the world. The loss to Yuan Jiannan was in the 2022 Macau Championship, which was the lowest period of Wang Manyu's form. At the 2023 Chengdu Mixed Team World Table Tennis Championships, Wang Manyu lost to Diaz 1-2 in the group stage, which has little reference value for the best-of-seven Olympic women's singles competition.
On the whole, Hina Hayada and Miyu Hirano of the Japanese women's team are the main competitors of the national table tennis, and Miyu Hirano is the most variable among them, hoping that she can be eliminated before she meets the national table tennis players, so that Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu will be much more stable in the finals.
4. Men's team
At the 2022 Chengdu Team World Table Tennis Championships, the Japanese men's team forced the Chinese men's team to a deciding set in the semifinals, and at the 2024 Busan Team World Table Tennis Championships, the South Korean men's team also played five sets with the Chinese men's team in the semifinals.
The Japanese men's team relied on Tomokazu Haramoto to score two points, and now his competitiveness has decreased, but Hayasuke Togami has improved a lot.
Of course, the South Korean men's team is more threatening, because the first set of the Olympics is the men's doubles match, and the Korean men's doubles has always been stronger, which narrows the gap between the singles strength of the two teams. Lee Sang-so of the South Korean men's team in the third singles should not be underestimated, and he has won Fan Zhendong and Ma Long before.
5. In terms of girl groups
At the Busan Team World Table Tennis Championships, the Chinese women's team narrowly defeated the Indian women's team 3-2 in the group stage because they did not adapt to the opponent's granular play. In the final, she was forced to the deciding set by the Japanese women's team, in which Hina Hayada broke through Chen Meng, and Miyu Hirano won Wang Yidi again. But when it came to the Paris Olympics, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu went to deal with Hina Hayata, and Chen Meng had no problem with Miyu Hirano or Miwa Zhangmoto.
The above is just a point out of the challenges that the 5 individual national table tennis national table tennis may encounter in the Paris Olympics, in fact, the overall strength of the national table tennis is strong, and the advantages are still obvious.
What do you think of the prospect of national table tennis in the Paris Olympics?