World Table Tennis

says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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looks like there are going to be a lot of changes for TT competitions next year

https://worldtabletennis.com/home

WTF ???
Does that mean no more ITTF World Tour next year ?
and thats replacing it ?

does any one understand WTF is going on ?

Isn't this just that they are trying to figure out ways to raise more money?

I kind of thought it was along the lines of their next attempt at something like TTX.
 
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Just an advertising campaign for the same product. If they really want to upgrade their image, they should spend money on a first rate tour video director rather than a third rate ad exec.
 
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World Table Tennis Forum in China Videos and Highlights

As you all know by now, ITTF is planning to launch World Table Tennis (WTT) in 2021. Naturally, ITTF consulted some of the players about WTT and allowed these players to ask questions about the WTT initiative last June 9. The platform used for the dialogue was a webinar between ITTF and the players, and this was mainly promoted in China and Chinese Social Media. However, the details webinar is mainly unknown to the rest of the world, so I thought I will post the link to the Full Video of the Webinar here for those interested in learning more about WTT. I will also post the links of the individual videos separated by each player (so you don't have to scroll and fast forward through the full video) if you're just interested in hearing the thoughts and questions of players about WTT. Some of the players in the videos I will post are speaking in Mandarin Chinese, but there is a translator in the video conference who will translate the questions and answers to English.

Full WTT Forum Video https://www.bilibili.com/s/video/BV12g4y1i7Lt
Ma Long https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Rf4y127y3
Lily Zhang https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV12A411q7rZ?from=search&seid=2367314747066376572
Quadri Aruna https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ui4y1s7CZ/?spm_id_from=333.788.videocard.3
Kasumi Ishikawa https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Sg4y1i7oA/?spm_id_from=333.788.videocard.0
Tomokazu Harimoto https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Mf4y1m7Sz/?spm_id_from=333.788.videocard.2
Timo Boll https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4514636256886550
Ding Ning https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1pp4y1D7jD?from=search&seid=8681554422826337949

Some Highlights
  • Harimoto asked when exactly the 4 Grand Smashes will be placed in the events calendar. Steve Dainton said it's unlikely to have 4 Grand Smashes in 2021 due to the Olympics. The plan is to have 1 or 2 Grand Smashes after the Olympics in 2021 and have 4 Grand Smashes by 2022.
  • Ma Long said that WTT is a very bold innovation. He also asked what is required to participate in the Grand Smash tournament. After getting the answer that qualification is mainly based on the world ranking, ML also smiled and asked Dainton if he needs a wild card to participate? Dainton didn't say whether he would issue a wild card to ML, but instead asked him: "Won't you retire after the Tokyo Olympics?" (Jokingly implying that if ML retires after the Olympics, his question about how to qualify for the Grand Smashes will become irrelevant.) ML jokingly said: "I shouldn't retire yet, so I can also participate in the new innovations of WTT!" Though the tone of the entire conversation was light-hearted, it appears Ma Long isn't thinking about retirement after Tokyo 2021. Is he aiming on becoming the first grand smash champion before retiring? :)
  • Ding Ning suggested that WTT look into having a team event with mixed genders and mixed nationalities to promote the sport. This is similar to the first season of T2-APAC and Ultimate Table Tennis League in India. She's also interested in knowing more about the separate Women's Tour events.
  • Ishikawa noted that WTT talks about professionalization and asked how this will affect players. She asked if it will be similar to tennis where individual players register for tournaments themselves as opposed to Table Tennis where it's mainly the National Teams who select the players who can play in the World Tour. Matt Pound didn't answer the question directly but said that WTT's goal is to make players more popular and to help players have more control over their careers. It is hoped that with the bigger prize money, one can earn a sustainable income in playing table tennis and more people are attracted to become professional table tennis players.
  • Timo Boll asks "Will the World Ranking System be changed again?" Dainton said Yes, but ITTF will try to do it in such a way as to minimize the change in World Ranking System's impact on Olympic Seeding. This implies that the Olympic Seeding will mainly be based on the current WR system, but the seeding and qualification in WTT events may already be based on the New World Ranking System.
  • Dainton jokingly also asked Timo to help convince the German Table Tennis Association to have a Grand Smash event in Germany. There are already applications from China, Japan, Singapore and some Middle Eastern Countries to host the Grand Smashes, but Dainton wants to find a way to get top European countries on board in hosting the Grand Smashes too.
  • Quadri Aruna expressed concern regarding the emphasis of WR in the qualification of the top events of WTT since it may prevent the participation of some good players with not-so-high WR. Stephen Duckitt remained firm that WR should be the primary pathway to qualify for the top events of WTT. However, WTT is looking at other possible methods to help qualify players for top events. It seems they're looking at expanding the player pool for the Grand Smashes to 128 players (up from the initially proposed 64 players). They're also looking at the idea of reserving some spots in the Grand Smashes for Top Junior Players who have low WR due to lack of participation in senior events and reserving spots for winners of Continental Events.
  • Quadri Aruna also asked what will happen to World Cups and World Championships. Dainton said there's no plan to abolish the World Championships in the immediate future given how WTT is still untested and ITTF will try to find a way for WTT and the World Championships to exist harmoniously.
  • As for the World Cups, the plan is to merge it with the World Tour Grand Finals to produce the WTT Cup Final for Men's and Women's. (Chen Meng, now's your chance to win your first major! :))

Here are some articles I've read summarizing the key points of the WTT Forum. Some are in Chinese so you can just Google Translate.
https://cn.ittf.com/2020/06/wtt-forum-china/
http://www.36ttw.com/news/sports/202006/44403.shtml
http://www.lntiyuzx.com/ssty/archive_10214.html
http://www.titan24.com/publish/app/data/2020/06/10/321736/os_news.html
 
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