The invited list for the International Table Tennis Federation Asian Cup has been released, with a total of 12 Chinese players, six each, successfully entering the list. However, there is still a big question mark as to whether these 12 players can participate fully. For example, Ma Long and Fan Zhendong from the men's team, and Chen Meng from the women's team, have hardly participated in any formal international or continental championships since the Paris Olympics, with only Ma Long playing in the Beijing Grand Slam. Therefore, it remains uncertain whether these three will participate, especially since the Asian Cup does not hold much appeal for these Olympic singles champions. If they do participate, can China maintain its full quota of 12 spots?
According to the replacement rules of the ITTF Asian Cup, we can definitely secure 12 spots, with two safeguards in place. The first safeguard is that if the host country's player withdraws, the host country can designate another player to replace them. In other words, if our three players withdraw, we can use our own national table tennis players to fill in.
Even if there is a risk that two players from the men's team, Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, might withdraw, we can still use another rule to have our national table tennis players step in. According to the regulations, if other invited players participate, there should be a player not on this list who ranks highest to take their place.
Xiang Peng from the men's team is ranked 24th in the world and should theoretically be within the top 32 invited list. However, due to the strength of the national table tennis team, six players have already reached the quota limit, so he was not on the list for this Asian Cup. According to the rules, if any of the national table tennis players withdraw from the Asian Cup, China would not reach the full quota, and Xiang Peng should then step in. Therefore, regardless of the situation, under the current rules, as long as China is willing, we can still ensure that 12 players participate in the Asian Cup with a full quota, which is nothing to worry about unless the ITTF and the Asian Table Tennis Union change the rules temporarily.
This is where Liu Guoliang deserves praise. Firstly, he secured the hosting rights for this Asian Cup, which is considered his first major achievement. Secondly, at the Beijing Grand Slam before this, many Chinese players used the advantage of being the host country to gain entry and accumulate a lot of points, which was also the event with the highest points after the Paris Olympics. A large number of Chinese players participated, and some non-mainstream players like Xiang Peng and He Zhuojia also accumulated a significant amount of points, keeping them firmly within the top 32 in Asia. Once any national table tennis player withdraws for various reasons, they can immediately step in.
These two foresights have helped the Chinese table tennis team secure a 100% chance of obtaining 12 participant spots in this Asian Cup, even if the three main players withdraw, there is no need to worry too much.