Return of International TT Matches

[JesperStef]

Forgot to post these. Ito's 3 aspects of evolution during COVID-19 and Harimoto's FH makeover in the eyes of Japanese coach Takahiro Oribe. His debut articles.

“大魔王”伊藤美誠がコロナ禍中に「3つの進化」 中国のライバルに情報をさらして目指す野望とは
https://number.bunshun.jp/articles/-/845960

張本智和17歳、フォーム大改造で得た“新たな武器” 歴史に名を刻むためのキャリア戦略とは
https://number.bunshun.jp/articles/-/845996

Thanks a lot for posting these.

I can’t read Japanese, but the Google translations are good enough to take away some interesting points from the articles.

When seeing articles like these, I always get a little sad thinking about how much information/knowledge like this is available in Japanese (or Chinese for that matter) compared to what is available in English...

So happy that we have you - and other users on the forum - to share news, knowledge, background and stories from the Asian TT communities

[apacible]

JTTA has just posted the selection criteria for WTT Middle East.

http://www.jtta.or.jp/Portals/0/imag..._wtt_chuto.pdf

The selection criteria for the upcoming WTT Middle East Hub certainly makes the 2021 All Japan Table Tennis Champs this week more interesting as a good performance can get a player priority to be selected to compete in the upcoming WTT tournaments. In order of priority:

• 1st Priority- Japan Olympic Singles Representatives (Harimoto & Niwa, Ito & Ishikawa)
• 2nd Priority- Japan Olympic Team Representatives (Mizutani & Hirano)
• 3rd Priority- 2021 All Japan TT Champs Winners (To Be Determined)
• 4th Priority- 2020 All Japan TT Champs Winners (Uda & Hayata)
• 5th Priority- 2021 All Japan TT Champs Best 4 (To Be Determined)
• 6th Priority- 2021 All Japan TT Champs Junior Division Winners (To Be Determined)
• 7th Priority- If there are still slots available for the international tournament in question, the JTTA Strengthening HQ will decide who to send.

Interestingly enough, JTTA may have overlooked one important detail: the entry deadline for the Middle East Hub tournaments is on Jan. 14, but the 2021 All Japan Champs only end on Jan. 17. Does this make the results of the 2021 All Japan TT Champs immaterial? Haha. JTTA never ceases to surprise. On a more serious note, JTTA will probably just sent a boatload of player entries before the entry deadline. If ever there is an entry quota and Japan is over the limit, JTTA will just make entry cancellations based on the priority list above once the results of the All Japan Champs are final.

On another note, some may be interested in what the WTT Middle East Hub will look like since ITTF has yet to post on its website the prospectus and info sheet for these tournaments. Luckily, USATT has the relevant tournament documents regarding the WTT Middle East Hub posted on its website: https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Table-Te...iddle-East-Hub
I'll leave it to you to read the full documents yourselves but I just wanted to highlight 2 major changes:

First, according to the "Welcome Letter" Document, only the Singles SF and Finals will be played best of 7. The Singles QF and earlier rounds, along with all the doubles matches, will be best of 5 Game Matches.

Second, according to the "WTT Middle East Hub Information Sheet" Document, both the WTT Contender and WTT Star Contender tournaments will have Top 20 World Ranking Play Down Restrictions. Basically, since these are considered lower-tier events aimed for the lower-ranked up-and-coming players, there is a limit to the number of Top 20 players who can join these tournaments. In the WTT Contender of the Middle East hub, only a maximum of seven (7) Top 20 players can participate. In the WTT Star Contender of the Middle East hub, only a maximum of twelve (12) Top 20 players can participate.

In its WTT FAQ document, the ITTF explained that the Play Down Restriction is to ensure that the Top 20 players are not continually dropping down to prevent lower-ranked players from earning prize money and rankings points. It reasons that the lower-ranked players are already at a disadvantage in that their low WR does not allow them to participate in the WTT Champions Series, which offers more WR points and prize money, so if too many Top 20 players join lower-tiered events like the WTT Contenders Series, which are meant for lower-ranked players, these lower-ranked players will never be able to move up the rankings.

The Play Down Restrictions are precisely why the JTTA Middle East Priority List is relevant. There's a possibility that not all of Japan's players inside the Top 20 can enter the Contenders Series tournaments given that WTT also has to accommodate Top 20 Players from other countries, so JTTA needs to come up with objective criteria to determine the priority order on who get to play. For example, if WTT determines that Japan can only enter (3) Top 20 players, Sato won't be able to play since even if she wins the 2021 All Japan Champs, her priority will still be lower than that of Ito, Ishikawa, and Hirano who are Olympic representatives. For once, Hayata's relatively low WR may actually work out in her favor. She's outside the Top 20 so she won't be affected by the Play Down Restrictions and can join WTT Contenders Series events. However, she's also just inside the Top 30, which means she still makes the cut-off for the Champions Series. She's the fourth priority right now based on JTTA's criteria since she won last year's All Japan Champs, so there's a good chance she'll be able to play many WTT tournaments this year.

In the end, the JTTA selection criteria just raised the stakes of this year's All Japan TT Champs. Now, I'm even more interested to see how the 2021 All Japan Champs play out and see who earns their spots to represent Japan in the WTT tournaments.

[Vlad Celler]

Great analysis, as always!

[apacible]

Great analysis, as always!

Cheers to a new year of World Ranking Calculations. Especially with the new Table Tennis World Ranking Regulations out.

[Vlad Celler]

Thank you!
Yes, I've already seen ...
Actually, the ITTF had no other choice, I think how to completely change the old system ...
Which they did ...