The Saudi Grand Slam is destined to be the focus of heated discussions among Chinese fans, why is this so? This stems from a chain of events that have made the game widely questioned. Originally, the Olympic selection rules formulated by the national table tennis team were to determine the quota after the end of the table tennis World Cup. However, in order to increase the suspense of competition, the national table tennis joined the Saudi Arabia Grand Slam, which made Wang Manyu lose the foreign war in the event and was deducted 3,000 points, which directly shook her leading position in the women's singles event.
In addition to the controversy caused by the sudden addition of the event, the organizers of the Saudi Grand Slam have also had problems with their performance. From the very beginning of the tournament, the players had a lot of complaints about the preparations of the organizers. The lack of training tables has led to players having to share tables to train, and some players have to wait for the tables to become available. As the organizer, Saudi Arabia is obviously unacceptable.
In addition, the coach of Chinese Taipei's Zheng Yijing also revealed a shocking experience: they were kicked out of the hotel by the Saudi organizers in the middle of the night on the grounds that "the room was full". However, at this time, Zheng Yijing still had the women's singles match going on and was not eliminated. Her preparation and experience were greatly affected by this, and even affected her form of competition.
The most shocking thing was the accident that Wang Manyu encountered at the women's doubles award ceremony. When she walked out of the players' tunnel with Chen Meng to receive the award, the fireworks suddenly lit by the organizer splashed at Wang Manyu and burned her arm. It can be seen from Wang Manyu's constant checking of the burned places on the podium that the burns are by no means slight. Fortunately, Wang Manyu has no follow-up women's singles matches, otherwise this accident will seriously affect her performance.
As the organizer of the tournament, Saudi Arabia should put the rights and safety of its players first. However, from driving the players out of the hotel to scalding Wang Manyu, this series of mistakes undoubtedly exposed the negligence of the organizers in handling the details. Chinese fans have called on Liu Guoliang, chairman of the board of directors of the WTT World Table Tennis Federation, to intervene in the matter, severely punish the Saudi organizers, avoid similar incidents from happening again, and protect the image of players and table tennis.
The fans' demands are not unreasonable. If the Saudi organizers are not punished and warned for this, future tournament organizers may continue to ignore the safety and rights of the players. As WTT leader, Liu must take action to ensure that future tournaments can run smoothly while allowing players to showcase their quality in a fair and safe environment.