Table Tennis. Is. Back.
Plus Jun Mizutani, Michael Maze's birthday and a debate on Wang Hao.
Hello there! A quick note before we get into this weeks edition of The Topspin Thoughts Newsletter. I got some excellent pushback on the Table Tennis Daily Forum on my theory that European players mature later than Asian players. You can see the full thread here. I must admit I was unaware that Vladimir Samsonov reached the final of the 1997 WTTC at the age of just 21. Even more impressive was that en route he beat 4 top Chinese players - Ma Lin, Wang Liqin, Ding Song and Kong Linghui - before losing to Jan Ove Walder in the final. Anyway, on with this weeks edition!
Table tennis IS BACK
The big news this week is that the ITTF announced the return of some top-level tournaments. The Men’s World Cup, Women’s World Cup and the 2020 ITTF Finals will all take place in China in November, with further details to be released soon.
Details are still thin with no lineups announced, but it seems the tournaments will be following their usual structure. The World Cup’s will have the usual mix of world and regional champions along with top players based on the world rankings. The ITTF finals will feature the top 16 players in the world, with a limit of 4 per national association.
Topspin thoughts reaction: While this is really welcome, it would be great to get a bit more guidance on when we can expect lower level tournaments to return. It’s also an open question as to how many top players will play in the World Cup’s/Grand Finals. The US Open is currently underway in New York, yet a huge number of the world’s top tennis players (including Nadal, Nick Kyrgios) are not participating.
Classic match of the week
Dimitrji Ovtcharov vs. Zhang Jike in the final of the 2014 World Team Championships. China went on to beat Germany 3-1, but Dima sure did make a statement by taking down the reigning world and Olympic champion in straight sets.
Our posts this week
I actually made an embarrassing omission in this caption: Wang Hao also lost to Zhang Jike in the final of the 2013 World Championship in Paris.
Have a great weekend everyone!