Or we have all misunderstood her alleged 'incompetence' for tenacity to start a new record (i.e. first to win Olympics Singles Gold without any World Singles titles). 前无古人,后无来者. Oh, but Ito is in a similar predicament.
Well, if they insist on holding China Open as planned (as far as I know the cancellation of all international tournaments in China is slated to last for only two months – Feb & Mar), there is a high chance that the winner will be a Chinese because most would not risk the chance! Then again...
Stray observation. The Japanese men's team for WTTTC2020 was as follows:
But if you look at the ITTF entry list now, it becomes:
All because Uda lost in the prelims of German Open?
Yeah, the same discussion happened on TTD not so long ago too. I just find it odd that such a consideration will be extended to qualifications but not the actual tournament since this reasoning of "you don't want to be eliminated early by your countrymen especially since there are only 2 spots"...
I think it really depends on how Ito performs for the next few months. If every top Chinese woman can beat her with relative ease, then tradition will likely prevail and CM will be excluded. I mean, the only bargaining chip CM really has is her 100% winning record against Ito to date.
According to the prospectus for the 2020 Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament (Singles), it states that "7.8 Players of the same NOC shall be separated in different groups during Stage 1 (if applicable) and in different halves (if possible) in the knock-out stage." Thoughts? Seems likely that...
I definitely think so. Having to get used to a new environment, worrying about their families back home and most importantly, fewer resources at their disposal in a foreign country.
Not sure about Olympics but rumour has it that CNT is now in Qatar for closed-door training instead of back home as originally planned. If the situation in China does not improve soon, maybe the Chinese players will remain nomadic so as to reduce the risks of being infected back home.
2019 - ITTF World Tour, Bulgarian Open, Panagyurishte (BUL), after beating two kohais (Yoshimura Kazuhiro & Asuka Machi) but fell to Quadri Aruna. All the makings of a good senpai.
Well, Ishikawa proved to the lesser senpai today. That's the silver lining! SYS was basically the Hirano during TWC 2019 – 即使失误也要上手,不上手没机会。
OTOH, CM thanks DN-jie for showing that she may be a better fit than SYS to complete the Tokyo trio with LSW.
It's more like, will ZYL do her best to mess up the situation again? Her loss to Ito during Austria Open 2019 was a huge contribution to the current WR situation.