The singles quarter-finals of the WTT Doha Star Match have all been determined, but surprisingly, none of the four Chinese men's singles players managed to advance to the quarter-finals, with two of them failing to even reach the round of 16. Although the purpose of this WTT Doha Star Match was to train newcomers, such poor results still made fans realize the extremely weak echelon strength of the Chinese men's team, especially after Fan Zhendong and Ma Long withdrew from the world rankings and WTT events. Currently, among the new players of the national table tennis team, perhaps the only hope is on Lin Shidong. It should be noted that Liu Guoliang previously mentioned in an interview with CCTV that the first year (2025) is precisely the year for training newcomers, but with such a foundation, who can ultimately step up? It's worth considering.
In this WTT Doha Star Match, the national table tennis team originally sent out five promising newcomers to compete, but due to Zhou Qihao's sudden injury and forced withdrawal, the hopes for the men's singles were placed on the remaining four players. Among these four, the one considered to have the greatest chance of winning the championship is 23-year-old Xu Yingbin. So far, Xu Yingbin has successively defeated all the main players within the national table tennis team, including Wang Chuqin, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan, Lin Shidong, and world champion Xu Xin. However, Xu Yingbin was unexpectedly eliminated in the qualifying round by South Korean player Zhao Shengmin with a score of 3-2.
Next is 19-year-old Chen Yuanyu, whose opponent was German-Chinese player Qiu Dang, who was also the second seed in the men's singles of this WTT Doha Star Match and the European Championship men's singles champion. Although Chen Yuanyu took the lead with a 1-0 advantage, he was unfortunately reversed and eliminated by the more experienced Qiu Dang with a score of 3-1, and Chen Yuanyu also failed to enter the round of 16. The third is 21-year-old Xiang Peng, who is the highest-ranked among these four. However, Xiang Peng was eliminated by Japan's 17-year-old main player Matsushima Kakeru with a score of 3-1. The last to play was 19-year-old Huang Youzheng, whose opponent was exactly Qiu Dang, the German player who had eliminated his teammate Chen Yuanyu. In the end, Qiu Dang defeated Huang Youzheng with a score of 3-1, leaving the Chinese men's team completely wiped out in the men's singles event!
Compared to the men's team, the women's team performed much better. Except for 18-year-old Zong Ge Man, who was eliminated by European star Szu Yikos with a score of 3-2 and thus stopped at the round of 32, the other five players all advanced to the quarter-finals. Among them, He Zhuojia successfully "avenged" her teammate Zong Ge Man by sweeping Szu Yikos out of the competition with a 3-0 victory in the round of 16. Qian Tianyi also advanced to the quarter-finals by eliminating Indian player Aakula with a 3-0 victory. Kuai Man consecutively eliminated Japanese player Oshima Kakeru and Chinese Taipei player Ye Yitan to advance to the quarter-finals. In addition, Chen Yi and Shi Xunyao were even more outstanding. Chen Yi eliminated Japan's top female player Hina Hayata with a 3-2 victory, while Shi Xunyao swept Japanese world champion Miu Hirano with a 3-0 victory and continued to defeat national table tennis world champion Zhu Yuling, who represented Macau, with another 3-0 score.
Although the WTT Doha Star Match is mainly for training newcomers, the echelon construction of the Chinese men's team really deserves the vigilance of the national table tennis coaching staff. According to Liu Guoliang's previously claimed "four-year plan," it may be difficult to select newcomers capable of challenging the Los Angeles Olympics even in the first year. It's not an exaggeration to say that in the end, perhaps only Fan Zhendong can be called back!
