China Trials For WTTC 2015 - Final Stage

johnxyz · Feb 7, 2015

fz29888 said:
Mu Zi did really well in previous "Road to WTTC" trails. For example, in 2011, she was the champion of "Road to Rotterdam", but she failed to make the single's match. Because the rule at that time was awful. The winner of "Road to Rotterdam" only guarantees a spot in the WTTC squad. You are not sure to play in the singles. So she paired Hao Shuai in the mixed double match and got her second sliver medal in mixed double.

For this time, the rule is clear that the winner will participate in the single's match. So I'm sure that Liu Guoliang will let her go unless she is injured during that time.

so how many players out of the 6 players will play in single match?

bachikho · Feb 7, 2015

all of them?

NextLevel · Feb 7, 2015

Liu Guoliang also liked her 2014 WTTTC trials performance, after which she was still benched for the youngsters after beating them and Ding Ning but losing to Liu Shiwen. She is going to make it to the WTTTC this year.

LeeYanJie · Feb 8, 2015

anyone has the match between mu zi and wu yang? hahaha. really happy my fav player finally made it!

UpSideDownCarl · Feb 8, 2015

johnxyz said:
so how many players out of the 6 players will play in single match?

bachikho said:
all of them?

I am pretty sure this is the correct answer from bachikho. This is not the Olympics. One of the things that makes it so hard to win the WTTC is how many good players there are from each country. Each country can send many of their best (not all for China but enough).

In 2011 China had 6 players in the Quarter Finals (out of 8). Jun Mizutani and Timo Boll were the non-Chinese Quarter Finalists. Timo Boll beat Chen Chi to get into the Semi-Finals. The matchups in the the Quarter finals were:

Wang Hao 4-0 over Jun Mizutani
Ma Long 4-1 over Ma Lin
Zhang Jike 4-2 over Wang Liqin
Timo Boll 4-1 over Chen Chi

In 2013 the Quarter Finalists were:

Xu Xin 4-2 over Kenta Matsudaira
Zhang Jike 4-1 over Patrick Baum
Wang Hao 4-2 over Yan An
Ma Long 4-2 over Timo Boll

That was 5 in the Quarter Finals and Fan Zhendong lost to Zhang Jike in the 3rd round so 6 from China in 2013. I believe this year they cut the number to 5 except for the host country being allowed to have one extra.

But the sheer number of top players in this event from all countries, makes this a very challenging event to win. That is what distinguishes this from most other tournaments.

janus · Feb 8, 2015

LeeYanJie said:
anyone has the match between mu zi and wu yang? hahaha. really happy my fav player finally made it!

I have this non-HD version from CCTV-5 not yet published in my channel....when you watch the match, choose 480p

NextLevel · Feb 8, 2015

In 2011, countries were allowed 7 players (Wang Liqin beat Xu Xin one round prior to what UpSideDownCarl wrote). So it should be six singles players as China is the host but the problem is that politics (or coach's decisions to put it more euphemistically) have often affected team selections. For the 2012 Olympics, as one example, Guo Yan should have played based on World Ranking, but was pulled for Ding Ning.

UpSideDownCarl · Feb 8, 2015

It also looks like, in 2011 and 2013, the only non-Chinese player to eliminate a CNT player was Timo Boll when he defeated Chen Chi in the Quarter finals of the 2011 WTTC.

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Jacks_h21 · Feb 8, 2015

The thing is, if someone outside of china rly want to be WTTC, he proply has to beat atleast 2,maybe 3 straght chinese players.
Among them very likely two out the top 4.

In the last 12 years there are 3 players afaik who have done that:
Timo Boll on some occasions, including a pair of World Cups
Werner Schlager in Paris 2003
Michael Maze at WTTC 2005

So, for me, the only non-chinese player capable of doing just that is Timo Boll.

It will depend largely on the draw anyway. It is likely i guess that Timo has to play one of top4 in QF because of his "high" WR.

Maybe Ovtcharov if he is playing out of his mind.

You cant kind of sort out Mizutani and Freitas, cause they havent beat anyone out of the Top4 so far.

My Joker would be Joo Se Hyuk

One of the very few players i do think could beat one of the chinese, atleast outside of the Top4

anchorschmidt · Feb 8, 2015

Jacks_h21 said:
The thing is, if someone outside of china rly want to be WTTC, he proply has to beat atleast 2,maybe 3 straght chinese players.
So, for me, the only non-chinese player capable of doing just that is Timo Boll.

It will depend largely on the draw anyway. It is likely i guess that Timo has to play one of top4 in QF because of his "high" WR.

Maybe Ovtcharov if he is playing out of his mind.

You cant kind of sort out Mizutani and Freitas, cause they havent beat anyone out of the Top4 so far.

My Joker would be Joo Se Hyuk

One of the very few players i do think could beat one of the chinese, atleast outside of the Top4

It highly depends on the draw for both Timo and Ovtcharov. If they are in the same draw then it's quite bad for them because one of them will knock the other out.

Timo has a chance against ZJK based on his performance in the World Cup 2014 and the WTTC and Olympics teams event in 2012. The only time he has looked chanceless against ZJK on the big stage is the WTTC in 2011. ZJK is perhaps still the strongest player in terms of mental strength but he hasn't really developed since 2011. If Ma Long or Xu Xin are not nervous, I think they are favourites against him but that is a huge IF.

The WTTC 2014 doesn't really count because ZJK was playing terribly but Ovtcharov has also shown that he can compete with ZJK based on his China Superleague performance.

Timo will be knocked out quite easily by Ma Long if Ma Long is not feeling very nervous.

A key element is Liu Guoliang's master tactics. He is the coach whenever a strong foreign player plays against a Chinese player. He saved a nervous Ma Long in WTTC 2013 against Timo. You saw what happened when Ma Long didn't play with coaching against Wang Hao. He saved ZJK in the 2012 WTTC against Timo because he was clearly telling ZJK to use his backhand down the line, which gave him 6 straight points in the last deciding set after Boll levelled it from 2-0 to 2-2.

He also saved ZJK against Samsonov in the 2012 Olympics. When they were going into the 6th set, he told ZJK that he had already lost the match. This took the pressure off ZJK and he managed to play more fluently against Samsonov and win the 7th set convincingly. source: http://tabletennista.com/2012/7/zhang-jike-made-liu-guoliang-nervous-photo/

Jacks_h21 · Feb 8, 2015

i highly doubt that, given the WR, ovtcharov and boll will meet in QF

in 2013 , the 9th ( Boll atm) met the 5th seed in AF.

in QF it was

1 vs 8
4 vs 7
3 vs 6
2 vs 5

maybe they meet in AF like in 2011, with reserved roles.

i highly doubt boll will make it into the top8, even if he wins the only World Tour he plays before the WTTC ( German Open)