How "heavy" is this heavyweight tournament｜May 3, China's ping pong assembles at Xinxiang Plain Sports Center

The table tennis fans are looking forward to the 2021 "WTT Grand Slam - World Table Tennis Championships" and the Olympic simulation match has been determined to be held on May 3-7 in Xinxiang Plain (Jianye) Sports Center, which is also the 2019, 2020 FIBA Finals and the finals of the Chinese Table Tennis Association Membership League. "This is also the second time that Henan has hosted a "heavyweight" table tennis event after the 2019 and 2020 FIVB Finals and the China National Ping Association Membership League Finals were held in Zhengzhou for two consecutive years.

How heavy is this event?

First of all, this game is crucial for the national ping-pong team to prepare for the Olympics.

Since the Chinese table tennis team withdrew from the WTT Middle East tournament in Doha, Qatar in March, and the WTT China tournament, which was originally scheduled to be held before the Olympics, was postponed until after the Tokyo Olympics, the national ping pong team has been away from the strongest competition for nearly half a year. Therefore, even though this match is just a competition of domestic masters, as Qin Zhijian, the head coach of the men's team of the national team, said, "We chose not to participate in the Qatar Tournament, so that our players can participate in the preliminaries of the National Games, and we can also safely devote ourselves to the training. Our team is equipped with all the playing styles and is fully capable of organizing a strong rivalry event no less than an international tournament at its own pace." Now, this tournament is here.

On the other hand, this game is also an important "window" to observe the players' status. The Tokyo Olympics will open in late July, Japan, South Korea has long been determined to participate in the lineup, and the Olympic list of the national ping in addition to Xu Xin Liu Shiwen's mixed doubles nailed, men's team, women's team, men's singles, women's singles list are not yet out. This Olympic simulation has thus become an important node before the Tokyo Olympics, and is the last chance for the national players to sprint to the Olympics. Bright performance, more or less will affect the coaching team's final decision.

In addition to preparing for the Olympics, sprinting to the Olympics, for the individual career of the athletes, this game is also very important, because it represents the two "heavyweight" tournament tickets.

Let's start with the WTT Grand Slam. This is an unfamiliar tournament to many people, but it is actually a brand new tournament system led by the World Table Tennis Team (WTT), which is chaired by Liu Guoliang. This tournament system is divided into three levels, the highest of which is the annual 4-stop Grand Slam tournament, which the WTT hopes to build into the world's top tournament comparable to the four Grand Slams of tennis and the Masters of Golf. Meanwhile, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITF) approved new rules for the table tennis world rankings at the end of last year - the WTT Grand Slam tournaments will occupy the highest position in the new world rankings for table tennis. Under the new rules, the WTT Grand Slam tournaments, along with the Olympic Games and the World Table Tennis Championships***, will be the top three tournaments at the top of the pyramid, with 2,000 championship ranking points. Not only that, the WTT Grand Slam tournaments will also provide generous prize money. Therefore, there is no doubt that the "through" such a competition, worth every athlete to give their best.

As for the World Table Tennis Championships, it goes without saying that the FITA World Table Tennis Championships is not only one of the top three tournaments mentioned above, but also a traditional tournament that has accompanied countless people since the days of the radio and the black-and-white TV, and is the stage where countless ping-pong legends are staged.

Because of this, Qin Zhijian said that the purpose of the "WTT Grand Slam - World Table Tennis Championships" is to "mobilize the whole team to prepare for the tournament through the WTT Grand Slam and the World Table Tennis Championships quota, so that the players can maintain a good state of mind and show their comprehensive strength.

With the weight of Olympic preparations and athletes' careers on the line, this "heavyweight" tournament will bring a Ping Pong feast to look forward to.

Let's see what happens on May 3rd.