Top Women vs Top Men

NDH

says Spin to win!
To weigh in with my opinion on this (as a tennis player/fan, as well as a TT player/fan).

The tennis argument is very different - The depth for starters is absolutely huge, which is why McEnroe's comments are considered to be fair (there are so many good player in the top 700 of the mens game).

Tennis is also a much more physical sport - It's not about the size of muscles (look at Federer/Djokovic), but it's the conditioning, endurance, speed as well.

Personally...... I don't think Serena would beat anyone inside the top 700.

Table tennis is different animal altogether.

The matches would be closer, but I also think that once the men became used to the women's style of play, it would give them a bit more of an advantage.

That being said, there are some men who simply couldn't keep up with the speed of hitting - Look at the likes of Aruna, Samsonov, Xu Xin etc. They would have to win by spin and speed away from the table - They couldn't compete with the quick back and forth close to the table.

I don't think it's "top 700" - Perhaps top 100 is more accurate.
 
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Not mentioned is that if top chinese women had to compete against men they would raise their game. LSW or DN are only going to get as good as they need to get to win majors and beat all the other women. If they compete vs men and train and everything, like it was a co-ed sport, they would raise their game up to their actual limit.

I don't think they would beat ML or FZD, maybe not top ten, but I think they would be very competitive with men. Like we would all know their names and they would still have named blades and such. Top 20 or 30.
 
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CNT have a "Battle of the Sexes" before Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, they are 1st women's team VS 2nd men's team, this is a real match not exhibition, here is the result:
Wang Nan: 2:3 Yan An (11:5, 11:13, 9:11, 11:5, 9:11)
Guo Yue 1:3 Fang Bo (first 3 sets is a closed match, 4th set 5:11)
Li Xiaoxia 3:1 Song Hongyuan (8:11, 11:8, 11:7, 15:13)
Wang Nan 0:3 Fang Bo (9:11, 9:11, 6:11)
Zhang Yining absent because of injury
In year of 2008, Yan An is 15 years old, Fang Bo 16, Song Hongyuan 15.
 
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When I was training in China in the early 90s I heard a few interesting stories. A former member of the Army team told me that when Liu Guoliang was on the team he would frequently play the women on the team and beat them playing shakehands grip. A few members of the national team told me that the men would sometimes play the women on their day off for fun and a spot of 7 in a game to 21 was considered fair.

Although they would get crushed against the top Chinese men, I think they would do surprisingly well against other players. In China, more so than other countries, they work to eliminate weak parts in their game and look to quickly find and punish weakness in their opponents during matches.
 
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