Mixed Singles?

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Was there ever a mixed singles event at high level?

Officially, no. Only for show.

Seeing players like Mima Ito or Ding Ning, I wonder if the difference in level between Men's and Women's game is enough to justify separating the events.

All things considered, the broad opinion is still yes.
 
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I've been wondering about this too, after Ito's performance... In retrospect, the video where she trains against Dima and makes him look a little ponderous may not be so far removed from what would happen in match play. Who knows...

Of course this would be very style dependant (for all the awe Wang ManYu can inspire, I'm not sure a match against FZD would make sense - Ito is a very special case just now, against whom raw power ability in rallies can be useless), and I don't think mixed events would be a good thing overall. At this stage, anyway. This is not to support discrimination but any match where a female player gets destroyed would feel cringe-worthy, and in the opposite case somewhat humiliating for the male player. People are not ready culturally speaking, and there would always be suggestions that the guy couldn't play 100%. Not that I can't see the other side of things: I'd be as curious as anyone about the results. Maybe more mixed doubles in general, as a way to ease the transition (assuming there has to be one).

Mixed teams events is another idea, but not entirely sure about the results either (lower level is a different thing, of course). Maybe worth a try, or has it been done already?
 
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Men would still win against any woman until you get past 100 in the rankings I would guess. I imagine Ding Ning Vs world 100 man might be close. That said rankings aren't necessarily accurate at that point with underrated Chinese and youth players etc.

Table tennis is much much closer between genders than other sports. There's probably 1000 men or more that could beat Serena. A statistical analysis of mixed doubles could reveal a lot. In tennis the men massively overpower the females in mixed and it becomes all about hitting the woman via your man and preventing the opposite tactically often times. This is completely different I'm table tennis but might reveal a lot.
 

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First of all this topic is coming back again and again, I'm not sure it's worth opening new thread every time. See here: https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/showthread.php?19179-Top-Women-vs-Top-Men

Secondly I'm wondering where people get any evidence for this claim "Table tennis is much much closer between genders than other sports." It's common agreement that there are basically no relevant data from top100/200/500 women competing with men so how you can say this? By watching Ito smashing Ding Ning in the TV? However impressive to watch the esthetics and "oh she is so fast" observations are pretty irrelevant. You need to face the opponent and beat him in best of 7, only that can show the real state. And for statistics you need to have many such matches before doing any general claim.

There are quite a lot of data outside professional world (and outside World Ranking level). In most countries women are allowed to enter team events in lower leagues. E.g. in my country any girl can compete in male team except she plays women first division (semi-professional level). The difference is typically 3-4 levels in other words girls who are good (>50%) in their second league are also reasonably successful (~50%) in men 5th division (that is one level below the first "nation-wide" division). In terms of ranking this means girls around NR#50 are around men NR#1000, around NR#20 they would be around men NR#400. There is no evidence that professional girls would be training more than professional men so why should this gap be significantly lower on World Raking level? Or why should all girls suck so much until they are let's say WR top10 and then suddenly they start to be effective against men style? I guess top girls in top shape (like Ito last week;) can cause surprising upsets if competing in men tournament but these would be statistically very rare.
 
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This is all conjecture until we actually see a mixed event. That’s why I was curious to see if there was one already.


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there has never been a mixed event other than in USA where its based on rating categories - womens are not rated as high as men, so you won't see much "top women" vs "top men" in the USA, as mens are on a different category (higher) than women

for fun, LGL in his days can beat the Chinese team playing shakehand grip
for fun, Wang Nan, Guo Yue's days will loose to CNT B team players (teenagers)
for fact, your Japanese womens all use mens as training partners

If Ding Ning or ITO was entered into a mens world tour open, I doubt they can get into R16.
I would say they can maybe attempt to beat WR50 players, but beating WR30 players will be tough (based on proper skills/level WR, not participation world ranking as per now)

we all know that for women's game to progress, they have shifted to play more like men's style
 
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Locally, the best player was a woman, until she stopped playing to raise a family. Her husband can now lay claim to the best player title, although there are several men at a close level. In our league, men and women play each other, without handicaps, although there are still very few women playing competitively. At least one has beaten me every time we played, which I claim is more of a style mismatch than anything.:rolleyes:
 
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for what purpose would women want to "try to compete" with men?

Why not? Over here two competitions exist. One is the womens, the other used to be the mens but is effectively mixed since an odd 30 years or so. I think that started when Vriesekoop broke through the barrier and found worthy opponents in the mens competition only.

And it works. I often meet strong women players in competition, and could well have had female teammates.
 
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Why not? Over here two competitions exist. One is the womens, the other used to be the mens but is effectively mixed since an odd 30 years or so. I think that started when Vriesekoop broke through the barrier and found worthy opponents in the mens competition only.

And it works. I often meet strong women players in competition, and could well have had female teammates.

I don't think Ito or DN will be interested in playing if your (assume local) competition
so what if they win it, what is the purpose of taking part?
how much is the prize money, how much ranking points do they get, what good of a time spent is it?

Lets say, DN and Ito goes to the next mens world tour
and looses outside R16 or R32
they hardly get any points or prize money
what is the purpose of taking part?

Wang Nan lost to a 15 year old (or so) CNT mens team player prior to olympics in 2008
Wang Nan was number 1 in the world, I would say the the opponent that time would be WR100~WR150

If you look at the current world ranking for mens, I don't see how your top womens of today can beat any of the top 50 mens
 
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It can be effective in improving the level of women's game nationally , but most likely will not work in the international level.

Evidence : USA Women's team was way more stronger than the men's team, if you compare the performance of women and men internationally, till the current generation of Kanak Jha , Tom Feng , and the Alguetti's came of age .. now I would say men and women have gotten closer in terms of international levels within their gender ...
 
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First of all this topic is coming back again and again, I'm not sure it's worth opening new thread every time. See here: https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/showthread.php?19179-Top-Women-vs-Top-Men

Secondly I'm wondering where people get any evidence for this claim "Table tennis is much much closer between genders than other sports." It's common agreement that there are basically no relevant data from top100/200/500 women competing with men so how you can say this? By watching Ito smashing Ding Ning in the TV? However impressive to watch the esthetics and "oh she is so fast" observations are pretty irrelevant. You need to face the opponent and beat him in best of 7, only that can show the real state. And for statistics you need to have many such matches before doing any general claim.

There are quite a lot of data outside professional world (and outside World Ranking level). In most countries women are allowed to enter team events in lower leagues. E.g. in my country any girl can compete in male team except she plays women first division (semi-professional level). The difference is typically 3-4 levels in other words girls who are good (>50%) in their second league are also reasonably successful (~50%) in men 5th division (that is one level below the first "nation-wide" division). In terms of ranking this means girls around NR#50 are around men NR#1000, around NR#20 they would be around men NR#400. There is no evidence that professional girls would be training more than professional men so why should this gap be significantly lower on World Raking level? Or why should all girls suck so much until they are let's say WR top10 and then suddenly they start to be effective against men style? I guess top girls in top shape (like Ito last week;) can cause surprising upsets if competing in men tournament but these would be statistically very rare.

It's really obvious on a physical level due to the nature of the sport. If you can compete as a 13 year old boy you can compete as a woman. There will never be a Harimoto in male tennis. There might be in female, and in fact I can think of Capriati who was close.

Here's the world number 100 woman vs world number 75 man in table tennis (rough rankings):

https://youtu.be/Q4WQqNJLSxw
 
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again, people are thinking of non pro players
then this is still based on the rating and not open play
ie U2600 level in the us

but what OP is talking about is international - world tour, where there is no limit to playing level category
why talk about non pro if op is talking about your top 10 womens?
If for non pros, then thats great - yes, USA benefited, but is it the USA womens are stronger, or mens weaker?
Same can be said about Japan with the womens team that went up a level as a whole group. Before they will always have 1 to 2 players in the top 20.
Now there can be 5 or more.
In your countries where there is open play - do you see the womens players doing well in WR?

Back to a Pro's life:
why would a 2600 women want to play against 2800 to 3100 players in a open tournament that costs thousands of dollars to get there, accommodation costs, other costs, and yet again, the women would likely need to play in the womens section too - for the sake of ranking points and other more important part of a playing career.
playing in the open will not give ranking points, prize money, option to grand final etc etc

for non pro - it can be fun for the fans and spectators, but practically, it just doesn't make sense for what OP is talking about
The schedule is so intense for Ito and DN to be wasting time in a non event.
ITTF is already trying to force them to take part in non platinum series....
 
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