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I know many people on here have pretty strong opinions on how ITTF/various table tennis governing bodies are run, so I decided to summarize some of the recent changes ITTF will be making to the world tour in the following blog post: https://edgesandnets.com/2021/02/06...-a-further-look-at-ittfs-rebrand-towards-wtt/
Summary of the new changes:
1) Legalizing blue, green, violet, and pink rubbers to replace the red rubbers starting October 2021
2) Splitting the upcoming Qatar Open in March into two independent back-to-back tournaments in the same location. I'm not sure if this will always be the case or if it's a pandemic related change.
3) Restricting the number of top 20 players who can play in a WTT Contender event. This would in principle include the upcoming Qatar Open, but ITTF has scrapped this restriction for this particular event due to the pandemic (so more star players will be allowed to play this March than typically allowed under the rules).
4) All singles matches through the quarterfinals and all doubles matches will now be three out of fives for the WTT Contender Series. In principle this should include the tournament in Qatar coming up this March, but ITTF may make an exception given that more star players are playing than typically allowed. Note that major events like the World Championships should still be four out of sevens throughout.
What do you think? I wouldn't have voted for any of these changes, but I think I can get used to the first three.
However I'm really not on board with switching to three out of fives. It is clearly designed to increase the likelihood of an upset, but I believe upsets are created by manufacturing organic improvement among developing young players across the world and not through arbitrary rule changes designed to increase the variance in a single match.
Summary of the new changes:
1) Legalizing blue, green, violet, and pink rubbers to replace the red rubbers starting October 2021
2) Splitting the upcoming Qatar Open in March into two independent back-to-back tournaments in the same location. I'm not sure if this will always be the case or if it's a pandemic related change.
3) Restricting the number of top 20 players who can play in a WTT Contender event. This would in principle include the upcoming Qatar Open, but ITTF has scrapped this restriction for this particular event due to the pandemic (so more star players will be allowed to play this March than typically allowed under the rules).
4) All singles matches through the quarterfinals and all doubles matches will now be three out of fives for the WTT Contender Series. In principle this should include the tournament in Qatar coming up this March, but ITTF may make an exception given that more star players are playing than typically allowed. Note that major events like the World Championships should still be four out of sevens throughout.
What do you think? I wouldn't have voted for any of these changes, but I think I can get used to the first three.
However I'm really not on board with switching to three out of fives. It is clearly designed to increase the likelihood of an upset, but I believe upsets are created by manufacturing organic improvement among developing young players across the world and not through arbitrary rule changes designed to increase the variance in a single match.