On April 25, the World Table Tennis Federation WTT Saudi Arabia Grand Slam will be held from May 1 to 11, and the main event will start on May 4. The WTT World Table Tennis Federation announced the wild card list of this tournament, with national table tennis Liang Jingkun/Lin Gaoyuan playing in men's doubles, and Wang Yidi/Chen Xingtong playing in women's doubles.
The WTT Saudi Arabia Grand Slam is the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, and it is also a new Grand Slam tournament added this year, with 64 draws for men's singles and women's singles, and 24 draws for men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. The main force of national table tennis is playing. Among them, the men's team Wang Chuqin, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan, and Lin Shidong played in the men's singles, and the women's team Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi, Chen Meng, Chen Xingtong, and Qian Tianyi played in the women's singles. In addition, Ma Long partnered Wang Chuqin in men's doubles, Chen Meng partnered Wang Manyu in women's doubles, Wang Chuqin partnered Sun Yingsha in mixed doubles, and Wang Chuqin once again became the first player in national table tennis to play three events after the Singapore Grand Slam. This competition is related to the national table tennis women's team Paris Olympic singles qualification, Wang Manyu and Chen Meng will do the final competition for the second Olympic singles ticket.
With six days to go before the start of the tournament, the WTT World Table Tennis Federation announced the wild cards for this tournament, and three Saudi players, Ali Al-Had-d-davi, Abdulaziz Bu Shulaibi, and Khled Al-Sharef, won the men's singles host wildcard places. Saudi Arabia's Al Sharef/Almuteri and Al-Hadrawy/Bu al-Shulaibi won the men's doubles wild card, and the other men's doubles wild card went to the national table tennis pair Liang Jingkun/Lin Gaoyuan. Liang Jingkun/Lin Gaoyuan are an old pair of pairs, the two reached the semi-finals at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships in Houston and the quarter-finals at last year's Asian Games in Hangzhou.
However, the two have not participated together for a while, Lin Gaoyuan partnered with Lin Shidong to participate in last year's Durban World Table Tennis Championships and WTT year-end finals, and partnered with Ma Long to participate in the Singapore Grand Slam and won the championship. Now, the two are once again working together, and the competition is also a test for the coaching staff, who are expected to compete for the men's P card at the Paris Olympics. The mixed doubles wild cards went to Saudi Arabia's Ali Al-Hadrawi and 16-year-old Egypt's Hannah Gouda, who will compete in the mixed doubles.
The women's doubles wild card was given to the national table tennis pair Chen Xingtong/Wang Yidi. Wang Yidi and Chen Xingtong have basically withdrawn from the competition for a place in the Paris Olympics, especially the world No. 3 Wang Yidi, who lost to Zhang Benmei in the Macau Women's World Cup, basically lost the opportunity to compete for the third place in the team. However, the two are expected to compete for the women's team P card.
Chen Xingtong and Wang Manyu won the silver medal in women's doubles at the 2021 Shaanxi National Games, but the two did not compete together in the international arena. After the Saudi Grand Slam, the national table tennis women's team will be produced in Paris, and the two direct contenders for the Olympic singles places, Wang Manyu and Chen Meng, will become partners in the doubles field, and this competition is very important for the four participants in the women's doubles.