Domestic table tennis players have played in the Table Tennis Super League in the middle of this month, and there have been few events recently. The main players of the national table tennis team did not rest, but went to Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, for training, preparing for the Houston World Table Tennis Championships late next month.
There were 64 athletes in the training, 32 men and 32 women in table tennis. The national table tennis will send 5 men and 5 women to participate in the World Table Tennis Championships, and fan Zhendong, Liang Jingkun, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu and Sun Yingsha have already qualified for the competition, and five people have been selected through other means.
The training began on October 16 and ended on November 15. The Houston World Table Tennis Championships will take just over a month from November 23 to November 29. During this period, the national table tennis is not completely training and waiting for the World Table Tennis Championships, but some players will participate in international competitions.
It has been reported before that the national table tennis team will send 7 players to participate in the WTT Slovenia Tournament. Originally, WTT events were recommended by the International Table Tennis Federation after the reform, but with the arrival of the epidemic, many events were postponed or postponed.
The Chinese table tennis team also gave up many games. The national table tennis team participated in the Qatar Open in March 2020, followed by the Tokyo Olympics in July and August this year, and has never competed abroad. The national table tennis team was supposed to participate in the Middle East tournament in Qatar at the end of February 2021, but it was later abandoned. In the current situation where the epidemic still exists, international sports competitions have accumulated some experience, and national table tennis is also ready to participate in some competitions abroad.
The WTT Slovenia Tournament will take place from 4 to 14 November. Two races will be held concurrently, the WTT Regular Season Challenge Rashko from November 4 to November 7 and the WTT Regular Season Challenge New Mesto from November 11 to November 14.
As early as October 5, the Chinese Table Tennis Association announced that it would send seven team members to participate. There are 5 male table tennis players, namely Lin Gaoyuan, Liang Jingkun, Wang Chuqin, Zhou Qihao, and Liu Dingshuo. There are 2 women's table tennis players, namely Wang Yidi and Liu Weishan. None of the seven members of the national table tennis team who participated in the Olympic Games participated in this competition. However, the five male table tennis players are the backbone of Chinese men's table tennis and will also be the focus of national table tennis. Liu Guozheng, Liu Guoqiang and Qiu Yike led the team to participate.
The WTT Slovenia tournament features five events: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles. Although the national table tennis team only sent seven players to participate, all five individual events participated.
Recently, the WTT official website announced the list of seeded players participating in the competition.
The top ten seeds in the men's singles are: Lin Gaoyuan, Liang Jingkun, Aruna, Wang Chuqin, Kanak, Achanta, Gana Sekaran, Duda, Person, Glasmenco. Three male table tennis players have entered the seed list. Zhou Qihao and Liu Dingshuo need to play qualifiers due to their low world rankings. Both players are very strong and have a high probability of entering the main game.
The top ten seeds in the women's singles are: Wang Yidi, A-Diaz, Szokos, Zhang Mo, Ni Xialian, Barazova, Batra, Noskova, Lin Ye, M-Diaz. Wang Yidi entered the list of seeded players, and another female table tennis player, Liu Weishan, although she did not enter the list of seeded players, she could directly enter the main competition. There were 7 participants in the national table tennis competition, and a total of 4 people entered the list of singles seeded players. Ni Xialian, who is almost 60 years old, actually participated in the competition, which was very surprising. At such an old age, it is awe-inspiring to participate in competitions everywhere!
Among the women's singles seeded players are two players that are more familiar to domestic fans, that is, the Diaz sisters. The sisters came to China together at the end of last year. Sister A. Diaz participated in the World Cup women's singles competition, the table tennis federation finals, and also participated in the Chinese Table Tennis Super League. A. Diaz has an easy-going personality, a little funny talent, and has a very good relationship with the national table tennis players, which has left a deep impression on domestic fans. The sisters participated in this year's Tokyo Olympics. This time they competed together in the WTT Slovenia Tournament and were both seeded players. It seems that the sister flowers are getting more and more attention.
In addition to singles, the national table tennis players also signed up for doubles competitions. Among them, Liang Jingkun / Wang Chuqin directly entered the men's doubles main competition, and Zhou Qihao / Lin Gaoyuan needed to play the men's doubles qualifier. Wang Yidi / Liu Weishan need to play in the women's doubles qualifier first. Wang Chuqin/Wang Yidi and Liang Jingkun/Liu Weishan competed in mixed doubles competitions. That is, there are five pairs of national table tennis combinations participating in doubles competitions.
There are no Japanese and Korean table tennis players in the list of seeded players, and it is estimated that they did not send players to compete.
The reason why the national table tennis team participates in the WTT Slovenia tournament is to support the WTT event, and the second is to let the national table tennis players practice instead of the competition and improve the competitive level of the team members. In the past two years, national table tennis has participated in too few international competitions, especially rarely going abroad. The coaching team intends to let the team members participate in international competitions, increase the competition experience with the players of the foreign association, and improve the level of competition instead of training.
In addition, the list of three men's table tennis players participating in the World Table Tennis Championships has not come out. Qin Zhijian intends to let the five strong male table tennis players participate in international competitions to understand their ability to play against foreign players. Liang Jingkun has qualified for the World Table Tennis Championships. Fan Zhendong also qualified for the competition in advance. Malone will definitely get a place to participate. The rest of the team can go and fight for the remaining 2 places. It is estimated that Xu Xin's participation in the World Table Tennis Championships will also be very likely, in fact, there is only 1 place. This quota is likely to be produced among Lin Gaoyuan, Wang Chuqin, Zhou Qihao, and Liu Dingshuo, depending on who can win it. The WTT Slovenian tournament is an opportunity for them to perform. Whoever gets good grades will naturally have a greater chance of getting a place.