Well-Known Member
She is the pride of Puerto Rico (no sarcasm). To get to where she is from a small island with little table tennis infrastructure is amazing.
But I do agree with you that she is ranked too high. Her game does not support this high of a ranking. I understand ITTF's desire to globalize the support, but in the end, I don't think it's healthy for her or the sport. If and when she drops out of the top 10, she might feel a sense of sadness initially, but I think it will be followed by a sense of relief. Hugo also gets the continental boost, but his game backs up his ranking to an extent. As for the sport, I don't think anyone honestly believes that Adriana is better than the CNT and JNT players that regularly play WTT events (Hirano, Kihara, Miwa Harimoto, Fan Siqi, Zhang Rui, etc). I understand that higher ranking doesn't necessarily mean better, but the general public has a sense that that should be the case for the most part. There's always go to be a certain amount of variability in rankings, but when the disparity is so great between #10 and JNT/CNT players trying to make it into top 10, it becomes somewhat embarrassing for the sport. Adriana is on par with the top Europeans so a top 30 ranking would probably make more sense. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a top 30 player. It still would be an amazing achievement for the island girl.
i totally agree with you. my rant is against WTT and WTT commentators / writers not against the girl. I'm tired to read "what an upset !"
Adriana is not deciding the rules. She's a strong and very entertaining player to watch, i even think she's got the best lobbing skills in the world for a girl - but that doesn't win a whole match.
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what is the name of the commentator during this tournament ?