WTT Singapore Smash 2024 3/7-3/17

[Shine]

The draw is so nasty
So many top players meeting themselves in the first or second round. It's prime hunting ground for upsets, because there's zero margin for error.

 

[zeio]

WTT should remove the country flags for individual events. It's as good as useless now.

 

[dingyibvs]

The draw is so nasty
So many top players meeting themselves in the first or second round. It's prime hunting ground for upsets, because there's zero margin for error.

Yea wow, what a wild draw. Overall the men's side is even more packed with top notch first round match ups. ML vs Alexis, LSD vs An Jaehyun, Aruna vs Lim Jonghoon, LJY vs Gerassimenko, Felix vs Sora, LGY vs LSS, Togami vs Moregard, all very interesting to me.

 

[zeio]

MS/WS main draw out.

Hayata and Hirano, and Ito: WTT hates JPN...

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...-be-revamped-for-paris-2024.24977/post-446298

WTT: Don't blame us. This one is totally on FZD.

FZD:
Hayata, https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=894
Ito, https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=953
Harimoto, https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=995
Hirano, https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=1360
Nagasaki (indirectly), https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=1709

Quek:
Kihara, https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=1270

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH7EQIpG2WA

 

[NextLevel]

Yea wow, what a wild draw. Overall the men's side is even more packed with top notch first round match ups. ML vs Alexis, LSD vs An Jaehyun, Aruna vs Lim Jonghoon, LJY vs Gerassimenko, Felix vs Sora, LGY vs LSS, Togami vs Moregard, all very interesting to me.

Aruna vs Lim is never interesting, Aruna always loses. He does score the random win against such dominant opponents (Harimoto, Lin Yun Ju) but Lim is a real deal head scratcher.

 

[NextLevel]

Looks like LHC beat Wan Yuan 3-1 who I thought would advance. After getting destroyed the 1st game, the remaining three were deuce games with her winning the 3rd game.

Lee Ho Ching during the WTTTC at Busan took me back to her early-to-mid 2010s form, that is why I picked her to come out. It is easy to forget she used to be a stable top 15 during the ELO era, she still plays that old ancient topspin game but has managed to make it workable again vs the last few years including 2021 Olympics where she was head scratching. That said, a lot of my other picks had embarrassing losses so no victory laps from me.

 

[NextLevel]

WTT: Don't blame us. This one is totally on FZD.

FZD:
Hayata, https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=894
Ito, https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=953
Harimoto, https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=995
Hirano, https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=1360
Nagasaki (indirectly), https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=1709

Quek:
Kihara, https://youtu.be/hH7EQIpG2WA?t=1270

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH7EQIpG2WA

Blame everyone else (even if in jest) other than Hirano for her own seeding?

 

[Shine]

I watched a bit of the draw ceremony and people in the live stream were quite critical about the choices and the objectives of the draw.

Why are some players in the top 20 meeting one another in the first round, and in the same vein, some qualifiers are drawn to face one another. Is this some measure to give qualifiers a sense of comfort because some of them will not get eliminated in the first round after toiling for three rounds of qualification?

Any explanation for this or is there something in a prospectus somewhere that I'm missing??

 

[NextLevel]

I watched a bit of the draw ceremony and people in the live stream were quite critical about the choices and the objectives of the draw.

Why are some players in the top 20 meeting one another in the first round, and in the same vein, some qualifiers are drawn to face one another. Is this some measure to give qualifiers a sense of comfort because some of them will not get eliminated in the first round after toiling for three rounds of qualification?

Any explanation for this or is there something in a prospectus somewhere that I'm missing??

There are too few seeded players. This is often done to increase randomness and excitement. A reliable draw will have about half the players seeded. A semi reliable draw will have a quarter. I wouldn't be surprised if the maxed the number of seeds at 8 for these events but it could be 16 which makes the draw semi-reliable but still leaves open the possibility of 16 playing 17 in round 1 as well as 1 playing 17.

 

[Emin]

I am very hyped for these upcoming matches.
All of Ma Longs matches in the first rounds will be great to watch and learn from.
Hopefully he can face Dima.
Dima gets his rematch for his loss at WTTC 2023 Match against Pucar.
Gerassimenko vs LYJ.
FZD vs LSD.
FZD vs Timo Boll.
Harimoto vs LJK.
LJH vs LYJ.
Felix vs Sora.
Felix vs JWJ.
LGY vs Darko.
Calderano vs Qiu.
Truls vs Togami.

All really great matches, as far as I can see for now.
Mostly predictions obviously, but it should be about right.

 

[SFF_lib]

I am very hyped for these upcoming matches.
All of Ma Longs matches in the first rounds will be great to watch and learn from.
Hopefully he can face Dima.
Dima gets his rematch for his loss at WTTC 2023 Match against Pucar.
Gerassimenko vs LYJ.
FZD vs LSD.
FZD vs Timo Boll.
Harimoto vs LJK.
LJH vs LYJ.
Felix vs Sora.
Felix vs JWJ.
LGY vs Darko.
Calderano vs Qiu.
Truls vs Togami.

All really great matches, as far as I can see for now.
Mostly predictions obviously, but it should be about right.

Which matches might be unpredictable?

 

[Gozo Aruna]

Can I ask more well informed members here: How does the Qualifying Round participation work? Is there like only N number of players per nation in the qualifying round? Or is it more like free for all open season kind of arrangement?

 

[NextLevel]

Yoshimura 1-0, 10‐4 to 1-0,12-14 vs Rassenfosse.

Amazing.

 

[NextLevel]

Can I ask more well informed members here: How does the Qualifying Round participation work? Is there like only N number of players per nation in the qualifying round? Or is it more like free for all open season kind of arrangement?

Usually there are a limited number of entrants per country. Qualifying is really about who doesn't get seeded into the main draw based on number of entries, number of players whose ranking qualify automatically for the main draw and the size of the main draw. So if you are not high enough to be in the main draw directly or you are not nominated by your country, you play in qualifiers draw.

 

[zeio]

Blame everyone else (even if in jest) other than Hirano for her own seeding?

Why do you think they have increased the seeded players from 8 to 16 since Singapore Smash 2023? Yeah, it was 8 for a draw size of 64 for Singapore Smash 2022.

Why do you think I predicted this? How many times has it been now? A lower number of seeded players coupled with NO separation by association, this farce is destined to happen.

How do you expect the top players just outside of seeding to increase their ranking like this? By playing tons and hoping for a good draw? Several top players with mismatched continental points have played double the events.

https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024_10_SEN_WS.html
Number of events:
5 Hayata, 17
7 SYB, 20
9 Diaz, 17
10 Szocs, 17
11 HY, 9
12 Ito, 9
13 YXX, 12
15 CIC, 13
16 Mittelham, 14
17 Harimoto, 13
18 Hirano, 11
19 YJN, 14

https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024_9_SEN_WS.html
Number of events:
5 Hayata, 18
8 SYB, 21
9 CIC, 14
10 HY, 10
11 Diaz, 18
12 Szocs, 18
13 YXX, 13
14 Ito, 9
15 Harimoto, 14
17 Hirano, 12
18 Mittelham, 14
19 YJN, 15

 

[NextLevel]

Why do you think they have increased the seeded players from 8 to 16 since Singapore Smash 2023? Yeah, it was 8 for a draw size of 64 for Singapore Smash 2022.

Why do you think I predicted this? How many times has it been now? A lower number of seeded players coupled with NO separation by association, this farce is destined to happen.

How do you expect the top players just outside of seeding to increase their ranking like this? By playing tons and hoping for a good draw? Several top players with mismatched continental points have played double the events.

https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024_10_SEN_WS.html
Number of events:
5 Hayata, 17
7 SYB, 20
9 Diaz, 17
10 Szocs, 17
11 HY, 9
12 Ito, 9
13 YXX, 12
15 CIC, 13
16 Mittelham, 14
17 Harimoto, 13
18 Hirano, 11
19 YJN, 14

https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024_9_SEN_WS.html
Number of events:
5 Hayata, 18
8 SYB, 21
9 CIC, 14
10 HY, 10
11 Diaz, 18
12 Szocs, 18
13 YXX, 13
14 Ito, 9
15 Harimoto, 14
17 Hirano, 12
18 Mittelham, 14
19 YJN, 15

So again, whose fault is it that those players are playing so many more events than others? Why is Hayata able to play so many events while the others can't? Divine intervention?

 

[NextLevel]

I am very hyped for these upcoming matches.
All of Ma Longs matches in the first rounds will be great to watch and learn from.
Hopefully he can face Dima.
Dima gets his rematch for his loss at WTTC 2023 Match against Pucar.
Gerassimenko vs LYJ.
FZD vs LSD.
FZD vs Timo Boll.
Harimoto vs LJK.
LJH vs LYJ.
Felix vs Sora.
Felix vs JWJ.
LGY vs Darko.
Calderano vs Qiu.
Truls vs Togami.

All really great matches, as far as I can see for now.
Mostly predictions obviously, but it should be about right.

Dima lost to Pucar in WTTC 2019 as well. He needs a lot of revenge.

 

[NextLevel]

Tanaka down 0-2 to Achanta - amazing.

 

[zeio]

I watched a bit of the draw ceremony and people in the live stream were quite critical about the choices and the objectives of the draw.

Why are some players in the top 20 meeting one another in the first round, and in the same vein, some qualifiers are drawn to face one another. Is this some measure to give qualifiers a sense of comfort because some of them will not get eliminated in the first round after toiling for three rounds of qualification?

Any explanation for this or is there something in a prospectus somewhere that I'm missing??

Ever since the new world ranking was implemented in 1/2018, ITTF has started playing with the idea of NO separation by association.

Off the top of my head, WTT has always had a significant reduction of seeded players. AFAIK, they have never elaborated, but they did explain the increase of seeded players for Singapore Smash 2023.

Singapore Smash Returns Bigger and Better
https://worldtabletennis.com/description?artId=1763

WTT also confirmed that the Mixed Doubles draw will increase from 16 pairs to 24 pairs for the 2023 event ensuring more international pairs are featured, and increasing the number of seeds in the singles competitions from 8 to 16 players. With the increase in seeds and the top 16 players not drawn to play against each other in first round matches, spectators will be able to see some of the world’s best table tennis players in the later stages of the event should they win and advance through their early round matches.

Second WTT Singapore Smash to have more seeded players, bigger mixed doubles field
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1128016/wtt-singapore-smash-changes

 

[zeio]

So again, whose fault is it that those players are playing so many more events than others? Why is Hayata able to play so many events while the others can't? Divine intervention?

Answer this. Why do you think WTT has suspended the PDR for CT and SCT until Paris 2024?

Spoiler

Hirano couldn't even qualify even if she signed up, otherwise.