Road to Tokyo 2020: Chinese TT Team

Originally Posted by zeio

In a recent remote interview around May 17th, Ito picked the following 3 matches as most unforgettable.

The 1st one for realizing that missing could become the key to winning after this and this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oGN6-65N8I

The 2nd one for "getting nervous" in a match for the very first time, right before her serve at 10:8 in the 5th when the whole crowd fell silent. Her mental strength grew after that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbV_I9Mvhxg

The 3rd one for knowing that she's gained strength in play and mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4xmUzAO5Ug

In another interview around May 8th, she said CM could "hit the deepest part of her heart, and her coach Ma Lin is outstanding. There is still some gap in strength."

When a player is asked about his or her most memorable match, the natural or common response would be a match he or she has won. This seems to be the case in most of the interviews I've watched or read such as those on Ask A Pro Anything. It's so much easier to hold on to the memories of victory than that of defeat. If ever that player considers a loss to be his or her most memorable match, it's probably a match where he or she still managed to play very well despite losing against a top-ranked player. It's quite interesting that of all the matches Ito could have picked as most memorable, two of the matches she picked were losses while the other one was a match she struggled in.

Chinese media just published rankings of top 20 active athletes worldwide with most market values.


Among them are five CNT players: #11 XX, #12 LSW, #14 FZD, #15 ZJK, and #16 DN. ML is not even in the list which doesn’t make any sense.

Ranking for Chinese athletes only:

Four CNT players are in the top ten: #4 XX, #5 LSW, #6 FZD, and #7 DN.

Originally Posted by Free bird

Chinese media just published rankings of top 20 active athletes worldwide with most market values.


Among them are five CNT players: #11 XX, #12 LSW, #14 FZD, #15 ZJK, and #16 DN. ML is not even in the list which doesn’t make any sense.

Ranking for Chinese athletes only:

Four CNT players are in the top ten: #4 XX, #5 LSW, #6 FZD, and #7 DN.

hurmm, no ML as your reigning defending undisputed Olympic and World Champ huh..Makes no sense indeed

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c-bxfLHyKRI

Adam’s interview with Steve, ITTF CEO. At 39:23, Steve talks about who would play Olympic singles for CNT.

Does it make sense to debate the team now? Olympics will be at earliest in about 15 months and form can change a lot until then.

Originally Posted by Janard

Borow raised his brow after hearing Steve's predictions because his favourite "Queen of Hearts" wasn't chosen. Totally made my day.

On a side note, I read that Yoshihito Miyazaki recently voiced his thoughts about the CNT possibly changing up their Olympics lineup (seems like JTTA was quite confident that the trio would be DN, LSW & CM previously) to include SYS (replacing DN). More interestingly, he allegedly referenced the need for the JNT to not only study this trio/quartet but also Ma Lin. The reason being that since LSW and CM are both hot favourites, their coach Ma Lin will undoubtedly be a core member of the Tokyo Olympics team as well.

Adam asked about singles specifically. Mima Ito crushed DN the last time they played. I do think DN will play the teams event unless father time forces her to quit.

CNT conducted another round of internal trials to boost the players' competitiveness.

Men – Team Event

1st – Ma Long, Wang Chuqin, Fang Bo
2nd – Xu Xin, Liang Jingkun, Xu Haidong
3rd – Lin Gaoyuan, Xu Chenhao, Zhou Yu, Zhao Zihao
4th – Fan Zhendong, Zhou Qihao, Yan An, Xiang Peng

Women – Doubles

1st – Gu Yuting/Chen Xingtong
2nd – Ding Ning/Zhu Yuling
3rd – Sun Yingsha/Wang Manyu (they have literally not won anything since the WTTC)
4th – Wang Yidi/Sun Mingyang
5th – Qian Tianyi/Zhang Rui
6th – He Zhuojia/Liu Fei

LSW and CM sat out of the competition (latter was photographed but not the former).

Originally Posted by Janard

CNT conducted another round of internal trials to boost the players' competitiveness.

Men – Team Event

1st – Ma Long, Wang Chuqin, Fang Bo
2nd – Xu Xin, Liang Jingkun, Xu Haidong
3rd – Lin Gaoyuan, Xu Chenhao, Zhou Yu, Zhao Zihao
4th – Fan Zhendong, Zhou Qihao, Yan An, Xiang Peng

Women – Doubles

1st – Gu Yuting/Chen Xingtong
2nd – Ding Ning/Zhu Yuling
3rd – Sun Yingsha/Wang Manyu (they have literally not won anything since the WTTC)
4th – Wang Yidi/Sun Mingyang
5th – Qian Tianyi/Zhang Rui
6th – He Zhuojia/Liu Fei

LSW and CM sat out of the competition (latter was photographed but not the former).

How much do these results mean for Tokyo 2021 selection?

It's all behind closed doors and no trophy's or Medals handed out. If say Xu Haidong has a flawless record in these friendly games without any tournaments on ITTF getting played, do CNT select him?

Lot of people on the forums seem to think the coaches already have the teams selected for Tokyo 2021.

Wells, seems like LSW is not recovering as smoothly as hoped. Wouldn't discount her yet since the Olympics is still a long time away but if CNT does try a new pairing (no DN/FZD again please), perhaps it's a sign that LSW's injuries are rather serious.

Originally Posted by Free bird

I actually just rewatched the last two encounters between Mima and LSW today. Mima managed to beat LSW from behind in both matches - 3:2 from 1:2 in 2018 World Cup team finals and 4:3 from 1:3 in 2018 Sweden Open final. I’m starting to doubt if LGL will pick LSW for singles if she can’t beat Mima prior to the decision timenext year. Another thing that’s Not going LSW’s way is that next years WTTC will likely not be canceled. Anything less than gold for LSW will dramatically diminish the value of her 2018 WTTC singles champion.

I was mainly talking about XD since she has already gotten that spot formally and what it means if her injuries persist. Of course that will have implications for Singles selection as well but 1 year is a long time away so I wouldn't bother too much about it at the moment.

On the two 2018 losses to Ito, I'm sure they have an impact of sorts on how the coaches evaluate LSW's suitability for Singles but I don't give them that much weightage (esp. not Swedish Open).

Originally Posted by zeio

Even Ito has spoken in an interview a month or 2 ago that CM and SYS will fight for 1 singles spot by trying to beat her as much as possible. Miyazaki has also spoken recently there's a chance the mere existence of Ito will force CNT to change the singles lineup.

Do you happen to know why they were reviewing the Rio trio (LXX, DN, LSW) instead of the Tokyo candidates? https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=P...&v=BmqYjHMxIj8

Seems like Ito thinks that LXX is the most imposing, DN most stable and LSW possessing the best techniques? I can't say for sure since I don't actually know Japanese.

Originally Posted by zeio

In the remote interview released on May 24, Ishikawa listed the following 3 matches as most unforgettable.

1st one for her greatest comeback.
https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13386560

<snip> my idol.

I see, so that's what she's been doing all this time against CNT! She's getting ready for this to happen again.
When she's down 3-11 5-11 2-11 2-9... quick squirrel nods of the head: "I've got her where I wanted. Now it's my match."

Originally Posted by Janard

I was mainly talking about XD since she has already gotten that spot formally and what it means if her injuries persist. Of course that will have implications for Singles selection as well but 1 year is a long time away so I wouldn't bother too much about it at the moment.

On the two 2018 losses to Ito, I'm sure they have an impact of sorts on how the coaches evaluate LSW's suitability for Singles but I don't give them that much weightage (esp. not Swedish Open).

What is LSW injury? Seen clips of her training

SYS won a mixed doubles title with XX, that seems like a good plan B
SYS also good option for Singles too.

Originally Posted by MaLin2.0

What is LSW injury? Seen clips of her training

SYS won a mixed doubles title with XX, that seems like a good plan B
SYS also good option for Singles too.

She has an elbow/forearm injury that keeps flaring up after months of non-invasive treatment, since the commencement of German Open. Unsure if the success of those treatments were partially marred by her (or coaches') insistence to continue training, hence those "clips" that you have seen. Rumour has it that she's been back at Guangdong for about a week or two now, presumably to seek further treatment or break away from training to speed up the healing process. Nevertheless, the players will all return to their own provincial teams soon and regroup in July.