Top Women vs Top Men

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It is well known that in the tennis world, there is a huge gap in playing strength between men and women. John McEnroe is an excellent handicapper and he once stated that if Serena Williams played on the Men's circuit, she would be ranked around #700.

I'm a new Table Tennis fan, but from what I've seen, it appears to me that the top women are much closer in strength to the top men.

What if current world #1 ZHU Yuling, or another top player like Ding Ning would play exclusively in Men's events. What would their rankings be?
 
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Lol Serena williams is a beast and her ranking in men side can be better than 700 for sure !!! In table tennis there IS a huge gap between aTop man and a Top woman as tennis but not more than 100 in men ranking for a top woman player . As an example Top women players like Ding ning , liu shiwen or Ishikawa kazumi cant keep up with the speed and spin Malong or Zhang jike produce . Men have stronger wrist so they have better serves . We once had this discussion in forum long time ago :) which was interesting . I myself think that if Ding ning or Liu shiwen participate in men side they can get 30 to 40 In Old Ranking of ITTF .
 
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Zhang yining back in 2008 played in a USATT event tat included Lucjan Blasczyk who was top 40 at the time and she beat him, and she also beat a Chinese man who had beaten weixing Chen (who was top 20 in the world at the time) 3-0. So I think the top women could hang in the top 30-50 and perhaps higher. Physical strength is nowhere near the factor in table tennis as it is in tennis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PUmRWmfXi8

 
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Lol Serena williams is a beast and her ranking in men side can be better than 700 for sure !!! In table tennis there IS a huge gap between aTop man and a Top woman as tennis but not more than 100 in men ranking for a top woman player . As an example Top women players like Ding ning , liu shiwen or Ishikawa kazumi cant keep up with the speed and spin Malong or Zhang jike produce . Men have stronger wrist so they have better serves . We once had this discussion in forum long time ago :) which was interesting . I myself think that if Ding ning or Liu shiwen participate in men side they can get 30 to 40 In Old Ranking of ITTF .

Most tennis experts seem to agree the top 700 comment is reasonable. Serena has played a man before, check her wikipedia.
"A 16-year-old Serena competed in a tennis "Battle of the Sexes", along with her sister Venus Williams, against Karsten Braasch at the 1998 Australian Open.[SUP][63][/SUP] At the time Braasch was 203rd in the ATP rankings. The Williams sisters had claimed they could beat any man outside the top 200, and accepted his challenge. Braasch beat both Williams sisters, playing a single set against each. The score vs Serena was 6–1 and vs Venus 6–2.[SUP][64][/SUP] Braasch said afterward, "500 and above, no chance." The bold teenagers later tweaked the number to beating men outside the top 350."

Serena is since on tape saying mens tennis is a totally different sport.

I felt mens TT would be similar but tennis favours power far more than TT. However the Zhang Yhining matches vs men has been very surprising. She and the guys she beat were before I played TT, but if the 1 guy was top 50. Would be fascinating to see top men vs top women. I do think top men would win, likely easily, but that said top men beat the lower ranked men easily too.
 
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Most tennis experts seem to agree the top 700 comment is reasonable. Serena has played a man before, check her wikipedia.
"A 16-year-old Serena competed in a tennis "Battle of the Sexes", along with her sister Venus Williams, against Karsten Braasch at the 1998 Australian Open.[SUP][63][/SUP] At the time Braasch was 203rd in the ATP rankings. The Williams sisters had claimed they could beat any man outside the top 200, and accepted his challenge. Braasch beat both Williams sisters, playing a single set against each. The score vs Serena was 6–1 and vs Venus 6–2.[SUP][64][/SUP] Braasch said afterward, "500 and above, no chance." The bold teenagers later tweaked the number to beating men outside the top 350."

Serena is since on tape saying mens tennis is a totally different sport.

I felt mens TT would be similar but tennis favours power far more than TT. However the Zhang Yhining matches vs men has been very surprising. She and the guys she beat were before I played TT, but if the 1 guy was top 50. Would be fascinating to see top men vs top women. I do think top men would win, likely easily, but that said top men beat the lower ranked men easily too.

When I watch serena williams and looking at her muscles it feels like she 's got the power of several men but it seems its not , at least vs pro male tennis players
 
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lol strong muscles aren't always large muscles

I'm just talking what I was thinking about her muscles , To be honest in racket games I mostly watch Table tennis my true love and maybe if I dont find any TT game , Tennis or Badminton Can be a good choice :cool: Any way thanks for your cool chat
 

JST

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I'm afraid you cannot compare 16-y-o Serena to Serena in top form and strength. But I still agree that any top10 woman cannot beat top100 men in Tennis (best of 3 sets). And the same in TT, I've seen top girls on national level myself in our club and they never beaten any men playing first two divisions. I'm afraid it is the same on WR level, even DingNing or other girls with blazing speed cannot stay against powerful FH topspin from WR50 guys. I do appreciate the precedence from USATT tournament ten years ago but I'm afraid no way any girl would stay players like Duda, Lebesson, Robles or Ueda (all are ~WR50) in best of 5 or best of 7 in serious team or individual competition. And this could very easily go up to men WR100.
 
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I've seen highlights. It wasn't a match, it was an exhibition. Also, for some stupid marketing reason, Ding Ning was wearing a dress that was uncomfortable to play in. It wasn't fair and not an accurate representation of a match between the two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tw0t7Hnyzc

This discussion has been on here before. There is a match where Ding Ning plays Jorgen Persson
 
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I'm afraid you cannot compare 16-y-o Serena to Serena in top form and strength. But I still agree that any top10 woman cannot beat top100 men in Tennis (best of 3 sets). And the same in TT, I've seen top girls on national level myself in our club and they never beaten any men playing first two divisions. I'm afraid it is the same on WR level, even DingNing or other girls with blazing speed cannot stay against powerful FH topspin from WR50 guys. I do appreciate the precedence from USATT tournament ten years ago but I'm afraid no way any girl would stay players like Duda, Lebesson, Robles or Ueda (all are ~WR50) in best of 5 or best of 7 in serious team or individual competition. And this could very easily go up to men WR100.

agreed, 16yo Serena isnt WR#1 Serena, but her comments have been from across her career.
 
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Anything is possible. If Harimoto can beat top Chinese players then Ding Ning, LSW can, too. Their muscles probably are the same lol.:rolleyes:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11645926

To be fair, there is a structural issue as well. For each and every sport it is important to consider in which proportions males and females play the sport, what the general perception around them practicing is, which resources are put into their training, the extent to which their parents and the general public would allow them to consider making a career out of it... Not all sports are equal and it is even harder to make worldwide generalisations, but we can't just assume fitness is the only factor.

I would also venture, and I hope that this won't be misinterpreted (it is certainly very dodgy ground, and anybody could find exceptions to this), that men on average may have more of a "killer instinct" (depending on the viewpoint, for physiological/hormonal/evolutionary/historical/cultural/other reasons). Please note that I am absolutely not referring to things such as discipline and determination, in which case the picture may very well look different. Also, I am not saying we should only see the glamorous aspect of this - there are others.

The cultural factor, which is one of the most important, is changing extremely fast but we should remember it is very much a recent trend and there is still a long way to go in many countries.



Putting debates aside, TT is fairly special in that people routinely follow both women and men in any given tournament. Compared to, say, football, the impact is huge and means at least that resources are much better shared. Sport is not just about "who's best" but rather "how much better than your original self can you get" and, in that sense, things have vastly improved.
 
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Men are just not used to the close to the table back and fourth smacking. Once they adjust, I argue they easily eat alive every woman pro with a handful of exceptions that won't get destroyed but will still lose most of the time. There's a reason why mens and womens table tennis is vastly different; there's a huge difference in power. The difference is not as great as in tennis but very drastic nonetheless
 
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Top women will be effective in this sport I feel, especially with the modern style bieng closer to women's. Easily some women can beat top 100s. I don't think Aruna could beat ding ning or lsw because of his style. Bit then I think pitchford could bat above his weight.
Tennis is a very different beast. And a lot of this will revolve around is it best of 3 or best of six. I suggest a tennis forum would be the place with the expertise for that however
 
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