I see your point of view, TT athletes need to be treated better in many, many ways.
With that said, haven't we all played in round robin matches when the group winner has already been decided? Most of the time people still play the match and at least give some effort, even if not 100% focused.
well, in many sports, when its over, it is rest time.
nba, you going to moan when all the starters are benched? same with football.
In so many sports, there is a balancing act. Pros are not machines and its stupid to be wasting resources.
in most of the RR in table tennis, 2 goes through.
If this world cup had 2, maybe players will still fight for second place.
but since 1 goes through, it is meaningless to even fight the impossible. Will finish 2nd place give you more joy than finishing 3rd place? What gains are there? how many WR points, or how much prize money?
Aruna would want to keep his fitness and go earn money elsewhere, and I would do the same.
Maybe won't be a crazy exhibition like what we saw today, but will not play more than 50% level
what you are asking is for all sports to "continue fighting" for the sake of "being a professional" and serving no other purpose.
the problem is in the system, the format. The players needs to live and protect themselves and stop being a sheep and just follow useless or pointless tasks.
Today, ITTF has a lot to think about,
the pilot run in a world cup and then the format leading to players getting over it for the sake of ending the pointless match