The Top 10 All Chinese Possible?

This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Oct 2010
2,285
892
5,082
Read 19 reviews
I have just seen the latest World Rankings (August) and I am slightly worried :) 8 out of the top 11 are from China due to recent climb by young players including Yan An and Fan Zhendong. What happens in a few years if all the top 10 players are from China? Is this possible?

Lets hope players such as Timo Boll, Chuang Chih Yuan, Joo Se Hyuk and Dimitrij Ovtcharov breaking into the Chinese Super League can help the rest of the world come closer and bridge the gap between the Chinese dominance.

What are your thoughts?

meeting_07_05_13.jpg

China team at WSA - Photo courtesy of Donn Olsen
 
  • Like
Reactions: meskinshirazi
Well the top 10 Chinese players are Ma Long, Xu Xin, Wang Hao, Zhang Jike, Yan An, Ma Lin, Wang Liqin, Fan Zhendong, Hao Shuai, and Chen Qi. Of them, 7 are in the top 10 internationally. The only 3 in the international top 10 that aren't Chinese are 5. Timo Boll 6. Dimitrij Ovtharov and 7. Chuang Chih-Yuan, so that means that Fan Zhendong, Hao Shuai, and Chen Qi will have to beat them out. I feel that they might be able to beat out Chuang Chih-Yuan but Timo and Dimi might be harder, Fan might have a slim chance, but I'm not sure that Hao and Chen will have a chance. Because of this China might have a chance of filling up all of the top 10, but I didn't take into account other people. I don't think Germany has any other players to offer and South Korea doesn't have any new talent to offer. But Japan might have some new players, Koki Niwa might be good enough in a few years and Kenta Matsudaira, Jun Mizutani, might be good enough to make it, but until then I feel that in a while China has an okay chance of making it into filling up the top 10.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Jun 2012
69
22
103
I think China will get stronger and stronger compared to the rest of the world (particularly europe) as long as europe does not admit that the chinese style is superior to the european and start to train people another way. Saying this as a european player.
 
says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
Well-Known Member
Super Moderator
Dec 2010
16,146
17,686
54,748
Read 11 reviews
The truth of the matter is that China could have 15 of the top 15 and maybe even 20 of the top 20 if they let more of their players go to international events. Forget about Chen Chi and Hao Shuai. Both of them are good enough to be ranked where they are and China really does not let them play in very many international tournaments. If they played in all of them, they would be top 10. But, there are guys like Zhou Yu, Zhang Chao, Fang Bo, Lin Gaoyuan, Li Ping and etc. who could all, if allowed to play in international play, potentially get to the top 15 or so.

So part of the reason it will not happen is China actually won't let it happen
 
Last edited:
says Aging is a killer
@LethalForehand:
Style? or the fact that their system is far more comprehensive.
Oh, and the fact that they have hundreds of millions of players to choose from in one of the most harsh sporting systems. And the fact that that the government sponsors their players and coaches for millions of Euros each.
How much taxpayers cash do you think that they have spent on Zhang? 50million, 100 million? Multiply that sum by all the CNT players.
Or the fact that the best athletes in Europe play a variety of other sports with TT not in the running as competition for these guys and gals?
All this comes before we start discussing 'style'.
 
Last edited:
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
May 2011
1,892
115
2,353
The truth of the matter is that China could have 15 of the top 15 and maybe even 20 of the top 20 if they let more of their players go to international events. Forget about Chen Chi and Hao Shuai. Both of them are good enough to be ranked where they are and China really does not let them play in very many international tournaments. If they played in all of them, they would be top 10. But, there are guys like Zhou Yu, Zhang Chao, Fang Bo, Lin Gaoyuan, Li Ping and etc. who could all, if allowed to play in international play, potentially get to the top 15 or so.

So part of the reason it will not happen is China actually won't let it happen

I'm not sure if it is that bad. New players always cause a shock because people are unfamiliar with them, but it is the trick to keep it up. A player like Fang Bo can now regularly be beaten by Boll or Dima, Koki Niwa beats Lin Gaoyuan, and the more those players play, the more they will start to lose. China has only like 2 or 3 practically invincible players at a time usually. Remember how Ma Long crushed Timo Boll when he was 16 years old? Now, 6 years later, Boll has a much better chance against him, even though Ma improved more than Timo. It's the same with players they face in the SuperLeague, where they beat guys like Xu Xin and Hao Shuai, but lose to unfamiliar players. Also, by the time that the new generation is strong enough to take over the top spots, players like Wang Liqin, Ma Lin and Chen Qi may start to drop out already.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Feb 2013
70
29
107
When you look at the top 10 Chinese you see Ma Lin, Hao Shuai, Wang Liqin, Chen Qi,(Wang Hao)who are old and will stop their career soon.
They will disappear from the world rankings. But then they will be replaced by Yan An, Fan Zhendong, Zhou Yu, Lin Gaoyuan and Fang Bo.
It's the normal process.
 
says Check out my Podcast Talkin' Smash!
says Check out my Podcast Talkin' Smash!
Moderator
Oct 2010
2,655
1,353
4,200
Read 12 reviews
33
Agree, China know that they dominate the sport already, they do try and limit the number of players exposed to international competition with very strict conditions so I don't think they would let it happen BUT it is possible, they have the players to probably dominate 50% or more of the top 100 men in the world ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: UpSideDownCarl
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Mar 2013
1,589
743
2,438
Read 3 reviews
Well ovtcharov is getting stronger and stronger, chinese players have a lot of problems with his serves. He won with wang hao and has a chance with zhang jike. In my opinion he will stay top 10 quite long. Boll is getting older and slower so I expect in one year he is going to drop off from top 10. But for now I do not See any new european being strong enough. I hope Kenta will appear next year in top 10
 
says Back on TTD finally 🥳
You have to keep in mind China isn't gonna be at the top forever. When the WTTC first started Hungary dominated the sport, then the Czech Republic, then Japan, and now China. So maybe soon Germany will dominate the sport?
I Don't think so, you should get to know how the chinese drill their young players and which questionable methods they use for it.
They train much too hard to be worse than other countries.
Especially germany has no huge young talents to bring.
 
I think that China will be in the lead for a LONG time, but places like South Korea and Japan are also really putting pressure on their players. And new Chinese players are starting to all have similar tactics, such as Fan Zhendong, and Yan'An. They all seem to play "similar" to Ma Long. So maybe other countries will catch on to this and help develop player's styles to deal with China's
 
says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
Well-Known Member
Super Moderator
Dec 2010
16,146
17,686
54,748
Read 11 reviews
China actually has sooooo many good players that they actually train certain players to clone players from other countries so that their top guns can practice against Timo Boll when Timo is not there. They have clones for most of the top players from other countries. Crazy.

Matt (pingpongpom) has the numbers right. China could have about 50% of the top 100 slots if they let all their top flight players play in international competition.

Wiwa has a point too though. I might have been overstating things a little. There will always be a few guys like Timo and Dima who might not win the WTTC but who will be able to be in the top numbers no matter how many players China threw into the arena.

But China will not let too many players at a time go to international play. They know it would kill the marketability of the sport if they let themselves dominate 50% of the top 100 slots.
 
Last edited:
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Nov 2012
52
21
74
Another point for you guys to think about is that, an ITTF pro tour allows only 6 singles to participate from an association (except the host, but u get my point), it is quite possible that China only wants to let 5-6 certain players to get all the chances to play so they will improve in skills and experiences from playing internationally. The goal is that these players will be more prepared in bigger events like WTTC and Olympic where China would not like to see an upset. You can see that it's obvious who the selected 6 chinese players currently are (Top 4 + Yan and Fan), and if any of them cannot play then another player can get a chance.
 
Top