Disappointed with ITTF grand finals 2014

the chinese felt sorry for the rest of the world.

But dont despair.Dima,mizutani and few others also play really well

I empathize with you!
I'm a Thai citizen, around 1.5 hour drive to the Grand Finals but I don't think I am motivated enough to watch the rest of the world playing for the greatest prize without the very best in the world.
It's sad. My wife and I may settle to watching the matches from ITTV after all. sigh.

Yes, I feel the same. It's a bit disappointing to me as I always love watching the Chinese players and watching big comps live.

Well, ITTF needs to learn that the sport is in tact because of the "Big Stars".
If any event, doesn't attract these big stars, then the event has lost its value.

Imagine a NBA game without any allstars (all resting)
Imagine a Cricket match with only 2nd string players (look at the empty T20I stadium with SA vs AUS recently)

ITTF needs to learn what is keep table tennis together these days. (the limited spectators who want to watch the best players in action - simple)
Stopping Chinese domination is "good", but it is also "bad"
If they are not keeping the good and not fixing the bad, they will end up making the bad, worse.
2 wrongs doesn't become a right.

I'm not going to support this Grand Final.
If I had tickets to it, I would be very sad too.

Its great to see non Chinese win, but not like this

ITTF seems clueless about spectatorship
and it is sad that TT of today requires China to purposely fail short of the Grand Final to consider making "Donations" to others.
Maybe next world champ China will make donations of the gold medal to help "keep the sport alive"
What will TT become if that was the case?

ranniely said:

"To qualify, players had to play in a minimum of five events. And that means that no chinese player qualified for this event, despite two of them lead the rankings. But Xu Xin just like Fan Zhendong both have played only 4 events and that means no Grand Finals"

How are they trying to stopping chinese domination, if the rules are, 5 played events - ticket for grand finals. Weren't the rules clear for the whole season?
Nothing bad in forcing players to play in more events around the globe, for exact spectators benefit ...

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CNT did not qualify on purpose

You can say, they want to rest the players or give other people chance - sure.
This is also the reason why so many non Chinese increase in WR
So its good that China isn't taking part, or is it?

How are they stopping Chinese domination?
Seriously, ITTF has done this directly, indirectly and even told it to the CTTA face.
CNT agrees that domination is not good for the sport and have been doing tons of things to uplift other countries (dating back few decades now). They also disgree with lots of things that ITTF is doing - which is true, as it will defiantly hurt the sport (from another angle).

1 more question, does life of a china team A player differs from life of let's say, <insert_random_EU_country> national player? Or is the way they handle young ones so much more hardcore? Look at Fan Zhendong, he's a beast and at such a young age. I vaguely remember some quote from Ma Lin when he said that he had very small ammount of vacation days in a year, two or three ... are they really that much hardcore? I know China is helping the outer world with high quality coaches, with their database and such, but still ...
" Work harder " to catch up with Chinese won't work in EU i think. Even if you are commited player, you need to live in commited environment, where a huge amount of people are striving for international glory in certain sport, so you don't feel like you're missing out on living the " real life " ... or i'm completely wrong and i apologise for stating any completely false assumption.

bel said:

We work really hard throughout the year to get this trip from our company. Many of my colleagues do think that next year we should go to watch China Open instead of the Grand finals. We even think of going to the beach and come for the last day only. If TIMO participated we would have felt delighted with or without the Chinese.

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World Champs in China next year May - can consider that.
And yes, China Open is mostly very good to watch, or else - Asian Games or Chinese national championships
Some times China Open doesn't attract top non Chinese, so yeah, WTTC is always the best

Well ITTF surely lacks in developing the sport. Chasing a TT career as a western kid is somehow more difficult than being a chinese. European kids will try other sports more popular etc etc. What really disappoints me is that coaches in Europe are not doing a good job. Isnt it weird that young players cannot beat 40 year old players like kreanga, saive,persson,primorac?

Of course these 40 yo players are extremely experienced and were developed in an era where top1 in world ranking could lose to a top50 player. In the 90's the players were so close to each other. But seeing youngsters playing modern attacking game with flicks and fast paced attacks that struggle against a 40 yo player makes me think that something is going wrong here

I was quite frustrated when I watched some matches from the european youth championships. Only the top4 athletes had proper (not perfect, proper) footwork for TT. So instead of stopping china, they should start some training programs with chinese coaches/players around Europe/usa/africa passing their knowledge, especially on the basics. I mean watch quadri aruna, weird technique on the FH but it is pretty strong, solid footwork, weak BH, medium short play (almost no flicks at all !) and he managed to win against players with years of quality training behind their backs. Imagine what he could achieve if he was trained properly in some aspects of the game.

ranniely said:

1 more question, does life of a china team A player differs from life of let's say, <insert_random_EU_country> national player? Or is the way they handle young ones so much more hardcore? Look at Fan Zhendong, he's a beast and at such a young age. I vaguely remember some quote from Ma Lin when he said that he had very small ammount of vacation days in a year, two or three ... are they really that much hardcore? I know China is helping the outer world with high quality coaches, with their database and such, but still ...
" Work harder " to catch up with Chinese won't work in EU i think. Even if you are commited player, you need to live in commited environment, where a huge amount of people are striving for international glory in certain sport, so you don't feel like you're missing out on living the " real life " ... or i'm completely wrong and i apologise for stating any completely false assumption.

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Yes, you are correct

The Chinese system tends to "over work" the body, and the body won't last long.
You don't see Chinese playing beyond 30 or 35 years old much, compared to Europeans.

Also besides the training culture, the Chinese style/technique requires heavily on the body. And grips like penholder, requires extra more on the footwork.
In some degree, the players age may be "2 to 3 years different", so a 30 year old player may indeed be 32, but this is minor issue compared to the training.

Its common to train 6 to 8 hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week for most of the teenage life, as well as CNT B/A team life.

Rules are rules, so actually CNT is to "blame" as they actually chose not to participate in the Grand Finals. Besides that, without the participation of the chinese players, I think that the results can be harder to predict, the games can be more close and even more spectacular with longer rallies and more rallies far from the table. There's Table Tennis beyond China you know...

dio_hgw said:

Rules are rules, so actually CNT is to "blame" as they actually chose not to participate in the Grand Finals. Besides that, without the participation of the chinese players, I think that the results can be harder to predict, the games can be more close and even more spectacular with longer rallies and more rallies far from the table. There's Table Tennis beyond China you know...

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While that might be true, there really something missing in a "GRAND FINALS" if top 4 players, which are Chinese, in WR, who are arguably the best players in the world to not attend the said event. It's like watching the recent FIBA World Cup without USA, sure there are other great teams but you know something is missing.

Yeah, rules are rules, and the sad thing is China did this on purpose to help the sport.
It got nothing do about falling short and not qualifying, you need to UNDERSTAND the motive for such action - it isn't an accident.

The time has come where TT need to become Tennis, where countries image is gone and become players name and WR
We see Dima and Timo, we don't see or say Germany

But the Chinese are always Chinese - no matter what is the name of the player.
So when a Chinese player wins, it is "China wins again" attitude and not players name.

So because of all this attack from ITTF, TT has strunk inside China, so if you were to say 50% of the worlds fans comes from China, then we can say, the worlds fan base / spectators is strinking very fast.
So yes, TT is beyond China, but right now, they are doing a lot and even "carrying" the sport in a way.

Indirectly, it will affect all of us and we are all loosers.
So my suggestion is, think again, and try to see the bigger picture

dio_hgw said:

Besides that, without the participation of the chinese players, I think that the results can be harder to predict, the games can be more close and even more spectacular with longer rallies and more rallies far from the table. There's Table Tennis beyond China you know...

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If that was the case, then why some people don't wish to go watch it live any more?

Tony's Table Tennis said:

If that was the case, then why some people don't wish to go watch it live any more?

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It's "some people" not "everybody". For me, it wouldn't matter, but of course one should feel like one feels. I just believe that above a certain level, the games are guaranteed to be interesting and spectacular. I personally love the sport, all sports actually, more than its stars.

bel said:

Thanks maho, but still can't help complaining, especially looking at these tickets and counting the days to go....

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