Rio Olympics 2016 (Singles Event)

[mr. tom]

would be a shame if this match ends already

 

[Ilia Minkin]

Ding Ning is at a disadvantage having to play a chopper before the final.

She is not just a chopper, her 3rd ball and counterattacks are super impressive. It should be a great match with Fukuhara.

 

[Persistence TT]

lucky ding ning, danng....

 

[fanTT]

Final. Ding ning vs li xiaxia.. boring.. damm edge.

 

[Ilia Minkin]

 

[steffi]

Ding Ning is at a disadvantage having to play a chopper before the final.

Get a bag of ice on that shoulder.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Can someone remember me why ding ning was picked to rio? She is not defending the title and also not a number 1 in rankings.

I think the final against Liu Shiwen where she got hurt and still won was very important

The title holder has nothing to do with who is eligible to qualify for the next oly,pics

coaching staff prefered ding ning over lsw, lsw clearly having some mental issues. they both lost though in the olympic qualifiers

the first invitation was send to LSW the chinese federation has the right to reject it and on and on untill they send invitation to ding ning

The nuts and bolts of the answer to your question are here in the answers above from mr. tom and TTFrenzy.

The final in which Ding Ning got injured and still pulled out the match, that mr. tom mentioned was the WTTC singles FINAL. Which means Ding Ning may not be the current Olympic Champion. BUT SHE IS the current WORLD CHAMPION. The current Olympic Champion won her spot in the qualification tournament. That is Li Xiaoxia. Which also means that if Ding Ning wins the semi-final and goes to the finals, it will be The Current World Champion vs The Current Olympic Champion. Just like with the men: ML = Current World Champion, ZJK = Current Olympic Champion.

As to why and how, TTFrenzy has answered the how.

In the Olympic Qualification rules for Rio 2016, the first method for qualifying was the Qualification tournament. ML won the first round of the men's. Li Xiaoxia won the women's. China could have left their remaining players in those tournaments and let the best man and woman standing, be the second qualifier. I would have liked that. Because then the players who qualified would have earned their spots.

But, there was another option that China chose to utilize because it meant that they could choose their second qualifier. A choice they did not have in London 2012. The second option was that, in the April (or was it May?) 2016 OLYMPIC Rankings (Not the World Rankings but based on them), the highest ranked player remaining, would be invited for any given country. I can't remember what the ranking cut off was. In 2012, the ranking qualification was for players in the top 28. But I would have to look at the Olympic qualification rules for Rio to know where the cutoff was for Rio: the last time I looked was in April; too long ago for my memory. Regardless, the cutoff did not apply to China anyway. The country could accept the invitation or reject it. The country could reject a certain number. I can't remember if that was 2 or 3.

For men's, China rejected 2 (FZD and XX) before accepting ZJK. For women's I believe they only rejected 1 (LShiwen) before accepting Ding Ning.

So, China was within the rules. Hopefully the IOC will look at how that played out and decide if they think it was fair that the rules they instated allowed China to pick its 2nd qualifying players for Rio. The scenario I just explained, there is no other country that is in a position to have a 3rd or 4th ranked player on their team that they would accept over a 1st, 2nd or 3rd ranked player. No other country is that deep. So, perhaps the IOC did not think of the scenario.

But, perhaps the IOC likes the idea that, if they can't avoid having China have both spots in the gold medal match, at least both matches are Current World Champion vs Current Olympic Champion.

In 2012 the rules were different and seriously flawed. The first 2 qualifying players in 2012 were chosen based on World Ranking in the June 2011, right after the WTTC finished. At that time Wang Hao was ranked 1st, Zhang Jike was ranked 2nd, Timo Boll was Ranked 3rd, Ma Lin was ranked 4th and Ma Long (who was coming off an injury) was ranked 5th. If the rules were the first 2 players in the rankings as of any time after October of 2011 and certainly by April 2012, Ma Long would have been in the 2012 Olympics. But the first 2 qualifiers were chosen based on world rankings that were 15 months before the start of the London games because the June 2011 World Rankings came out on May 15th.

I think the qualification process for Rio was better. But, I think it was still flawed. One positive side of how China handled things by pulling out after they had 1 player qualify for singles was: THEY LEFT MORE SLOTS FOR PLAYERS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES TO EARN THEIR SPOT THROUGH THE QUALIFICATION TOURNAMENT.

I hope this information helps. But if anyone wants to do a google search for Olympic Qualification Process Table Tennis, it is easy to find the rules for both 2012 and 2016.

 

[Michal_Z]

This looks like the 3rd place match will be more exciting than the final match..
I really wonder if Li Xiaoxia will be able to defend the title.. And in fact I think she will crush Ding..
But I just cant wait to see Fukuhara fight for 3rd place!
Imagine that, medal from Olympic games!
Yayyy, good luck AIIII!!!

 

[eyepop]

Can someone remember me why ding ning was picked to rio? She is not defending the title and also not a number 1 in rankings.

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8ahCE34zojo" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

I think this video pretty much sums it up.

 

[Persistence TT]

the bronze medal match begins in 8 hours from now.. crap i will be sleeping

 

[NextLevel]

The nuts and bolts of the answer to your question are here in the answers above from mr. tom and TTFrenzy.

The final in which Ding Ning got injured and still pulled out the match, that mr. tom mentioned was the WTTC singles FINAL. Which means Ding Ning may not be the current Olympic Champion. BUT SHE IS the current WORLD CHAMPION. The current Olympic Champion won her spot in the qualification tournament. That is Li Xiaoxia. Which also means that if Ding Ning wins the semi-final and goes to the finals, it will be The Current World Champion vs The Current Olympic Champion. Just like with the men: ML = Current World Champion, ZJK = Current Olympic Champion.

As to why and how, TTFrenzy has answered the how.

In the Olympic Qualification rules for Rio 2016, the first method for qualifying was the Qualification tournament. ML won the first round of the men's. Li Xiaoxia won the women's. China could have left their remaining players in those tournaments and let the best man and woman standing, be the second qualifier. I would have liked that. Because then the players who qualified would have earned their spots.

But, there was another option that China chose to utilize because it meant that they could choose their second qualifier. A choice they did not have in London 2012. The second option was that, in the April (or was it May?) 2016 OLYMPIC Rankings (Not the World Rankings but based on them), the highest ranked player remaining, would be invited for any given country. I can't remember what the ranking cut off was. In 2012, the ranking qualification was for players in the top 28. But I would have to look at the Olympic qualification rules for Rio to know where the cutoff was for Rio: the last time I looked was in April; too long ago for my memory. Regardless, the cutoff did not apply to China anyway. The country could accept the invitation or reject it. The country could reject a certain number. I can't remember if that was 2 or 3.

For men's, China rejected 2 (FZD and XX) before accepting ZJK. For women's I believe they only rejected 1 (LShiwen) before accepting Ding Ning.

So, China was within the rules. Hopefully the IOC will look at how that played out and decide if they think it was fair that the rules they instated allowed China to pick its 2nd qualifying players for Rio. The scenario I just explained, there is no other country that is in a position to have a 3rd or 4th ranked player on their team that they would accept over a 1st, 2nd or 3rd ranked player. No other country is that deep. So, perhaps the IOC did not think of the scenario.

But, perhaps the IOC likes the idea that, if they can't avoid having China have both spots in the gold medal match, at least both matches are Current World Champion vs Current Olympic Champion.

In 2012 the rules were different and seriously flawed. The first 2 qualifying players in 2012 were chosen based on World Ranking in the June 2011, right after the WTTC finished. At that time Wang Hao was ranked 1st, Zhang Jike was ranked 2nd, Timo Boll was Ranked 3rd, Ma Lin was ranked 4th and Ma Long (who was coming off an injury) was ranked 5th. If the rules were the first 2 players in the rankings as of any time after October of 2011 and certainly by April 2012, Ma Long would have been in the 2012 Olympics. But the first 2 qualifiers were chosen based on world rankings that were 15 months before the start of the London games because the June 2011 World Rankings came out on May 15th.

I think the qualification process for Rio was better. But, I think it was still flawed. One positive side of how China handled things by pulling out after they had 1 player qualify for singles was: THEY LEFT MORE SLOTS FOR PLAYERS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES TO EARN THEIR SPOT THROUGH THE QUALIFICATION TOURNAMENT.

I hope this information helps. But if anyone wants to do a google search for Olympic Qualification Process Table Tennis, it is easy to find the rules for both 2012 and 2016.

I debated some of this on mytt and it is mostly true, but not 100%.

In 2012, China could also have removed Wang Hao and sent Ma Long. But China has a tradition of sending World Champions and Olympic Champions. That is where Ma Long had not proven himself yet. Someone listed all the people who had played the Olympics for China and the correlation with WTTC and Olympic medals was 100% - basically, you could not be a World Champion in the previous cycle or two and get left off with a few wrinkles here and there unless you had been superseded or retired.

The other thing is that Japan also had to reject Yoshimura and put in Niwa. This was because Japan said that the top two ranked players at the end of tournament play by a certain date in 2015 would play Singles and the third would join them on the team - this ended up being Mizutani, Niwa and Yoshimura. However, Niwa was higher ranked at that date but Yoshimura overtook him in 2016 before the final list came out from the ITTF. So Japan held to its original selection and rejected Yoshimura for Niwa.

I used to feel strongly about this whole thing of selecting this player over that player and I still do. But I have heard some coaches I respect view it entirely differently and consider Zhang Jike's big game play to be a real individual phenomenon and not a meaningful vice. They believe that ZJK enters the zone when he feels challenged and that that aspect of his personality will always lead Liu Guoliang to respect him and give him a chance even when he is not performing well 24/7/365 due to other pressures.

BTW, Hong Kong had two players qualify on the 2nd day but they were both rejected for the top 20 stalwarts. I believe one of them will be the 3rd member in the team event though.

 

[Siva Schopenhauer]

Ai Fukura vs Li Xiaoxia Semifinal HD Full Match


https://openload.co/embed/6wdqvIfMqSE/2016.08.10_里約奧運_兵乓球_女單4強_福vs李曉霞_ELTA_HD_1080P_國語.mkv.mp4

 

[steffi]

I wonder if this Australian knows anything.

 

[fz29888]

Women's bronze medal live:
http://chaochaolive.icntv.xyz/channel/sports/cctv-5

 

[TableTennisDaily]

Now Live! Bronze Medal Match! Ai Fukuhara vs Kim Song! Who's tuned in?

UK users live stream here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/olympics/36688417

 

[Thomas Jeffcott]

Li Xiaoxia wins the final I reckon

 

[TTHopeful]

Come on Ai Fukuhara!

 

[steffi]

Fukuhara needs to keep the ball away from PRK's forehand.

 

[TableTennisDaily]

i see a 7 set coming

 

[Dan]

2-0

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