No Kato won the trials, she is safe. Sato got a wildcard for nothing, the wildcard should go to the best player without a WTTC place which is clearly Hayata, no doubt about it.
There is still a question mark against some underdogs when he feels more pressure to win the match, he struggled in the past against some lower ranked players. Players like Moregardh or Lin Yun Ju are a bigger threat. Or Pitchford, Freitas where he struggled last year.
Beside Ito Hayata is the only player who could potentially challenge chinese players, what a shame she won't play WTTC. This trial system is so stupid.
He didn't play 43 games, only 39 games. And won most of these 3-0 3-1 4-1
The league games from Samsonov aren't included either. The stats doesn't include training games either which is probably the main issue. Someone like Ma Long trains several hours per day usually.
Ma Long didn't play more than Samsonov last year, he played 39 ITTF games last year compared to 40 Samsonov games according to the ITTF statistics page. In fact both of them didn't play a lot, for example Wong Chun Ting has more than twice the match count.
No idea, I wonder if here success at the Asian Championship in 2017 hindered here progress, I mean too much TV show participations etc. after this epic win against several chinese players. He may have lost his focus for table tennis since then.