From June 11 to June 16, the WTT Star Challenge Ljubljana will be held. In fact, this Star Challenge has a high gold content, except for Lin Yunru's withdrawal, almost all of the strongest foreign players among the male players have signed up. France's Lebrun is the top seed, while Tomokazu Haramoto is the third seed. Even the German veteran Bohr, who rarely participates in international competitions, signed up for this competition.
In fact, this is a key game for foreign players to grab points, after all, the winner of this Star Challenge can get 600 points, which is second only to the championship and Grand Slam tournaments. In fact, as the Olympic Games approach, as long as there is a competition, no matter the size of the event, as long as they have the conditions to register for the competition, they will participate.
None of the national table tennis players in this challenge have registered, nor have they signed up for young players. Many fans also hope that the national table tennis will send non-main players to participate, because even if the main players do not come to participate, it is still an opportunity to practice by letting non-main players participate. However, the national table tennis is also worried that the non-main players are not the competitors of these foreign players, because there are too many strong foreign players participating in the competition, and the national table tennis can only be sure of winning the championship by sending all the main players to participate.
Zhang Benzhihe also signed up to participate in the competition this time, in fact, every time there is no international event that the main force of national table tennis signs up for, Zhang Benzhihe enthusiastically signs up to participate. Because Zhang Benzhihe knows very well that this is conducive to his point improvement, although he does not have the upper hand against the main force of the Warring States Table Tennis, but he is still full of confidence against other foreign players Zhang Benzhihe.
Zhang Benzhihe has many main competitors this time, including Lebrun, who swept him out of the Grand Slam tournament before, and is also Zhang Benzhihe's main competitor. So this time, Tomokazu Zhang is also running for revenge, and hitting the championship is his ultimate dream.
German veterans Boll, Lebrun, Zhang Yuzhen, Alamyan These foreign players are likely to be in the same half of the singles area as Zhang Benzhihe, Zhang Benzhi and the probability of winning the championship in this star challenge is not very large, even if there is no main player in the national table tennis competition, with his current strength, he does not have the possibility of winning the championship.
Moreover, since this Star Challenge is a competition between external players, it can also allow the national table tennis coaching staff to compare the level of these external players. Needless to say, the gold content of this Star Challenge is even more fierce than the just-concluded Saudi Grand Slam tournament, which can be called a points-grabbing competition.
The gold content of the women's team in this Star Challenge is also very high, and all the main players of Japanese table tennis have signed up. Han Ying, who has not appeared for a long time because of injury, also signed up for this competition, and almost all the female players from the foreign association came to sign up for the competition. It is no wonder that national table tennis did not sign up for many young players, it is really competitive.
Just a few main players of Japanese table tennis know that the competition is fierce. It is estimated that Hina Hayada and Miu Hirano will be divided into the same half of the district this time, because Miu Hirano's ranking is low, and the six main Japanese table tennis players will participate together, and it is unlikely that the ITTF will be even in the draw grouping. Hina Hayada is still the favourite, but Ito's form has improved a lot lately.
Therefore, the women's team of this Star Challenge is basically a contest between several main players of Japanese table tennis, and the performance of the main players of Japanese table tennis will determine who can finally win the championship. This time, the national table tennis coaching staff can also focus on the playing style of the Japanese table tennis women's team, which is the best opportunity.
In the past, it was a competitor who studied the main players of national table tennis, but this time it was the opposite. Hina Hayada and Tomokazu Zhang also teamed up in the Mixed Doubles at WTT Zagreb, with Huang Zhenting/Du Hoi Kwan, Szokos/Ionescu, Zhu Qianxi/Zhao Dacheng and Robles/Xiao Yaoqian in Mixed Doubles.
This time, Tomokazu Zhang has a real chance of winning the mixed doubles competition, because the strength of the competitors is indeed average. Only the Korean pair Cho Dae-sung/Zhu Qianxi are slightly stronger, but there is a gap between them and Tomokazu Zhangmoto/Hina Hayada in terms of competition experience, and it is estimated that they will finish second.
From June 3 to June 9, the WTT Zagreb regular challenge will be held, and the men's singles competition of France Lebrun did not register. Due to the low number of points in this event, some players did not register. Tomokazu Zhang is more likely to win the men's singles title at this tournament, and his main rival this time will be Lim Jong-hoon.
Although Tomokazu Zhangmoto and Hina Hayada are relatively famous in the minds of fans, the strength of each of these participating foreign players should not be underestimated. Since these two events are held next to each other, it is estimated that many players will compete in two consecutive events. Tomokazu Haramoto only focuses on singles matches in the Star Challenge, and competes in both regular challenges.
In fact, the closer the Olympic Games are, the more these foreign players have to participate in this kind of international competition for self-training, because they do not have the same training conditions as national table tennis, and can only be carried out by training on behalf of the competition. Compared with Tomokazu Harimoto, who aims to win the championship, Hina Hayada of the women's team is expected to win two consecutive international tournaments.
At present, among the female players, Zhang Benmei and can impact Hina Hayata, and if Misei Ito recovers almost in shape, she will have an advantage over Hina Hayada in terms of tactical changes. However, Hina Hayada is indeed more consistent, and at least one of these two events can win the championship.