in fact, it's not as bad as it seems for Europe
let's compare current ATTU TOP16 and ETTU TOP16 without country quotas (now we don't discuss the objectivity of the rating formation)
ASIA
FAN Zhendong 21
XU Xin 28
HARIMOTO Tomokazu 15
LIN Gaoyuan 23
LEE Sangsu 28
WONG Chun Ting 27
NIWA Koki 24
MIZUTANI Jun 29
JANG Woojin 23
MA Long 30
LIM Jonghoon 21
CHUANG Chih-Yuan 37
LIANG Jingkun 22
JEONG Sangeun 28
JEOUNG Youngsik 26
YOSHIMURA Maharu 25
Average age: 25.44
EUROPE
BOLL Timo 37
FALCK Mattias 27
OVTCHAROV Dimitrij 30
FRANZISKA Patrick 26
PITCHFORD Liam 25
GROTH Jonathan 26
SAMSONOV Vladimir 42
KARLSSON Kristian 27
FREITAS Marcos 30
FILUS Ruwen 30
GAUZY Simon 24
WALTHER Ricardo 27
LEBESSON Emmanuel 30
HABESOHN Daniel 32
APOLONIA Tiago 32
KOU Lei Male 31
Average age: 29.75
but.. if we exclude extreme values (Harimoto and Vladi), then we get asia 26.13 europe 28.93 or just 2.8 year difference
of course Asia is younger, as always, but gap isn't so huge
now about new superstar crisis in EU. players like Timo, ML, Harimoto, FZD, WCQ don't appear so often, even in China. for example, it took Taiwan 10 years after Chuang Chih-Yuan to raise Chen Chien-An, then another ten years to Lin Yun-Ju. None of them became ML, but that's the best they've had in the last 30 years. The best Singaporean has already passed 36 etc.
Personally I think Franziska or Duda has a chance to became next Timo, Groth next Maze and Pitchford next Vladi )) at a later age, but there is a chance. At least they'll play the role of "almost greats" until new true Timo, Maze and Vladi come up
