World Table Tennis Contender Doha 2021

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Operation 'Assassinate Ito' (a.k.a. Team Koala) is a failure, unless Lily Zhang and/or Adriana Diaz are the ones who have improved the most.
 
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Team Chinese Taipei (apart from Lin Yun-ju) has crashed out.


I don't understand Team Chinese Taipei. Starting to think their depth isn't that great on either Men's and Ladies team. Lin Yun-Ju only real gem in the entire squad.

CIC good potential, only prayer in singles. CZY/CHT good in doubles but not great. Maybe they all just had a bad day today.

 
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Thanks for the response. ITTF also posted an official explanation. It seems that seeds 1-8 are set to follow a snake format then ( 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5)? Is there any incentive in ATP for players outside of the top 20 to improve their ranking then?

It appears that Ishikawa and Hirano are still treated as normal seeded players even though the invitation system is weird.

Yup, there are still incentives for players outside the top 20 to improve their WR. First, the higher your WR, the more chances you will automatically qualify for the main draw. The system in WTT Contender that has only 8 seeded players may mean that a qualifier and the 9th best player in the tournament have the same chances of drawing a top 8 seed in the first round. However, at least the 9th best player doesn't have to play the brutal qualifications because of his WR. The qualifier on the other hand not only has to play qualifications but still has a chance of drawing a top 8 seed in the first round of the main draw. Second, those with higher WR will be able to play higher tier events that award more ranking points like the Champions Series and Grand Smashes, which lower WR players won't have the opportunity to play. Brit Eerland had the toughest first round draw this tournament, but I'm sure she'll get better draws over the course of many events. She'll also get to play Grand Smashes and Champions Series events and won't have to worry about National Entry Restrictions since she's the top player in the Netherlands, so I'm sure her WR will be fine, especially if she's plays as well as she played Ito a while ago.

No, seeds 1-8 don't follow a snake seed format (1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5). Just like before, those seeded from 5-8 can be placed in any of the 4 quarters held by the top 4 seeds. In the Men's singles, Harimoto (seed 1) and Pitchford (seed 6) are in the same quarter while Lin Yun-Ju (seed 3) is in the same quarter as Aruna (Seed 8). If it were a snake seed format, Harimoto (seed 1) and Aruna (seed 8) would be in the same quarter and the same goes for Pitchford (seed 6) and Lin (seed 3).
 
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In that case, then LYJ and Falck should've been in either the 16 or 17 slot as they're the #3 and #4 seeds. 🤔 They're still in their respective blocks but not in the traditional order. 1 9 24 32 instead of 1 16 17 32.

It beats the whole purpose of PDR when the wild cards and WTT nomination are treated as seeded players. 😑 I feel for Eerland.

https://www.facebook.com/WTT/videos/484001106314563/?__cft__[0]=AZVHPtqncHnBdMP3FtdEa-cGUTPMdQyGJm3vNkNmRabWQc9nP3Rz7VYOCTfYIn98nyLLkM4KPWgL9rEjHh2H24NGyPXl3ab-3utDle21lIYON-C1RNQ8S_ZFVXQKxUGNZ1oNOf_8xcvZ3EzBSUEFnaobGWnAC9SrnftguJqlcuxxxQ&__tn__=%2CO-R

Yup, Hirano, Ishikawa, and Diaz are still seeded despite being wild cards. I've been studying and following Tennis the past few months to have a better understanding of how WTT will play out. WTT is basically ripping off the ATP and WTA tournament formats and systems lol. In Tennis, wild cards are still seeded based on their WR and just because you are a wild card doesn't mean you can't be seeded. Novak Djokovic was the top seed in the 2017 Mexico Open despite being a wild card in the same tournament, and Andy Murray was the top seed in 2017 Barcelona Open despite being a wild card.

Even the way WTT draws seeded players follows tennis. Compare the WTTC draw (128 players) and the Tennis Australian Open Draw (also 128 players ) Traditionally, in Table Tennis for the WTTC, seed 1 is in position 1 and seed 2 is in position 128 and there's no difference with tennis in this regard. However, traditionally, in Table Tennis, Seeds 3 and 4 would be drawn either in position 64 or position 65. On the other hand, in Tennis, seeds 3 and 4 are drawn either in position 33 or position 96 Seeds. For the top 5-8 seeds in table tennis, they would be randomly drawn in positions 32, 33, 96 and 97. In Tennis, the positions that the 5-8 seeds can be draw into are a bit different: 32, 64, 65, 97. To illustrate, you can compare and contrast the difference in positioning between the 2019 WTTC draw with the 2021 Tennis Australian Open Draw

In the end, it doesn't really change the draw since regardless of the slight difference in positioning, the top 4 seeds all get their own quarters and seeds 5-8 can be drawn randomly in any of the 4 quarters. However, I can understand the confusion on who the seeded players are for the WTT contenders tournament given that we are all used to seeds 3 and 4 being drawn randomly into positions 16 or 17 (for a 32 player main draw) while now, in WTT, seeds 3 and 4 are drawn either to position 9 or 24.

 
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