The 2024 season is drawing to a close, and various selection lists are being released one after another! Recently, the sports department of Xinhua News Agency announced the list of the top ten international athletes in 2024. The highly anticipated Quan Hongchan, Pan Zhanle, and Ma Long were all eliminated without exception, with only Zheng Qinwen making it onto the list. The reason for this is that Zheng Qinwen won the women's singles tennis championship at the Paris Olympics, becoming the first Asian player to win an Olympic tennis singles title. She also finished as the runner-up at the Australian Open, setting her personal best record in a Grand Slam event. Additionally, she won the runner-up titles at the Wuhan Tennis Open and the WTA Finals. In the WTA's year-end selection, Zheng Qinwen was awarded the Most Popular Singles Player of the 2024 Season and the Best Moment Award at the 250 tournament. In fact, it is not surprising that Zheng Qinwen made the list of the top ten international athletes, it could even be said to be expected! First of all, there is no doubt about Zheng Qinwen's performance in the 2024 season; she amazed everyone by reaching the final at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year; then, Zheng Qinwen defeated the favorite Swiatek in the semi-finals of the women's singles tennis at the Paris Olympics, winning against her opponent for the first time in her career, and went on to defeat Vekic in the final to claim the championship; secondly, as the sport with the…

The new year 2025 has arrived, and as early as the day before (December 31, 2024), the International Table Tennis Federation had already announced the world rankings for the first week of the new year. Affected by the withdrawal of three national table tennis Olympic champions - Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, and Chen Meng - many positions have changed. According to the official website, the current number one women's doubles team in the world has changed from Chen Meng/Wang Manyu to South Korea's Tian Zhiqi/Shin Yubin (who had previously also ranked first), while the men's doubles first place continues to be held by France's Lebrun brothers. As for the men's singles, women's singles, and mixed doubles first places, they still belong to Wang Chuqin, Sun Yingsha, and Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha respectively. For more details, please see the following text. In fact, international table tennis competitions have largely come to a halt since the Chengdu Mixed Team World Cup ended on December 8, so there would not have been much change in the world rankings after week 50 (December 10). However, unexpectedly, on December 27, Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng suddenly announced their withdrawal from the world rankings, which naturally caused turmoil. In the previous week 52 world rankings (December 24), Fan Zhendong was ranked sixth in the men's singles, and Chen Meng was fourth in the women's singles. Additionally, Fan Zhendong/Wang Chuqin ranked eighth in the men's doubles, and Chen Meng/Wang Manyu ranked first in the women's doubles, but now they are no longer displayed on the list. As for…

The Chinese Table Tennis Association has released a statement confirming that Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, and Chen Meng have withdrawn from the world rankings. Prior to this, both Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng chose to announce their decisions by issuing statements, but Ma Long did not. The outside world only learned of Ma Long's decision to withdraw from the world rankings through the statement issued by the Chinese Table Tennis Association. So, is Ma Long's low-key withdrawal right or wrong? Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, and Chen Meng are all well-known players in the national table tennis team. They have won 3, 6, and 4 Olympic gold medals respectively, totaling 13 Olympic gold medals. Their historical status is unquestionable. Previously, Chen Meng and Fan Zhendong issued statements announcing their withdrawal from the world rankings, which had a significant impact, with many international athletes also posting messages in support of the two singles champions at the Paris Olympics. However, the outside world has been waiting for Ma Long's decision, but there has been no announcement from the Dragon Team. It was only through the statement issued by the Chinese Table Tennis Association that we learned of Ma Long's decision to withdraw. Some netizens believe that Ma Long is still very low-key and did not choose to openly confront WTT and Liu Guoliang. Such a choice is also beyond reproach, after all, athletes have the right to make their own choices. There are also netizens who think that originally hoped that Ma Long could stand shoulder to shoulder with Chen Meng and Fan…

On December 31st, the International Table Tennis Federation announced the latest world rankings, with Fan Zhendong, Chen Meng, and Ma Long officially withdrawing from the world rankings. This result has caused collective dissatisfaction among fans, who believe that the WTT World Table Tennis Association maliciously forced the three Olympic champions to retire, with strong criticism and questioning whether the WTT dares to release its financial report for 2024. Specifically, the fans say: "So you're forcing out the Olympic champions who have won glory for the country, right?" "Has the financial report been released?" "2024 is over, when will the financial report be released so taxpayers can see who's making more than 100 million yuan per match?" It's clear that the fans are very angry, and it's hard for them to accept the departure of the three Olympic champions from the international arena! Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, and Chen Meng are all superstars in table tennis, with a combined total of 13 Olympic gold medals. Fan Zhendong is also the first men's singles champion under the WTT event system's Grand Slam series. Such excellent top players are an indispensable factor in the commercialization path of the WTT World Table Tennis Association. It can be foreseen that Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, and Chen Meng's withdrawal from the world rankings and no longer participating in international competitions will cause table tennis events to lose attention, which means a decline in the commercial value of the events, and even the ticket sales situation will be affected. Among the three who withdrew, only 36-year-old Ma…

Translation of the content: WTT has issued an official statement in response to Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng's announcement of their withdrawal from the world rankings. The gist of the statement is that the fines are not new rules but are intended to ensure player participation. Several French table tennis players, including Simon Gauzy and the Lebesson brothers, have spoken out against WTT, claiming that these rules do not benefit the athletes. Netizens have discovered that if the top 20 ranked athletes do not participate in WTT events, based on the schedule for the first 11 months of 2025, they would be fined $225,000, which is approximately 1.642 million yuan. How outrageous this fine is can be seen when you consider that even if an athlete were to participate in all WTT events and win them all, the prize money would still not reach 2 million yuan, not to mention taxes and other deductions. Moreover, the tickets for these matches are not cheap, sometimes comparable to the entrance fees for concerts by top-tier celebrities, and there are various sponsors involved, so the earnings are indeed higher than before. In response to the WTT officials, Fan Zhendong also made a statement, roughly meaning that he was unaware of when the fines for non-participation began, as he had never been officially informed about penalties for withdrawing from competitions. He only received formal notice recently that WTT will strictly enforce the rules next year, so he signed and submitted his withdrawal from WTT on the same day. Regarding Fan Zhendong's response, it is…

Recently, Xinhua News Agency, a domestic authoritative media organization, conducted a selection of the top ten international athletes. Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen outperformed fellow Olympic champions Quan Hongchan, Sun Yingsha, and Ma Long to become the only Chinese athlete selected. This news has sparked heated discussions and attention from netizens and the media. We all know that after the Olympics, Quan Hongchan and Sun Yingsha became the two most popular and influential athletes in the domestic sports scene. Let's start with Quan Hongchan. After the Paris Olympics, her hometown, Meihet Village in Zhanjiang, has become a tourist attraction. It is reported that at peak times, tens of thousands of people visit Meihet Village every day. Tourists just want to see what kind of environment and family can cultivate such an excellent Quan Hongchan! The current Meihet Village has transformed from an unknown small village into a bustling market. This shows the influence of Quan Hongchan. Now let's talk about Sun Yingsha, whose influence is also very hot. Not long ago, a certain platform held an annual best female athlete voting selection. Sun Yingsha led by a landslide. It is reported that the number of votes received by the athletes after Sun Yingsha did not even reach half of Sun Yingsha's votes! This also shows how much Sun Yingsha is liked by netizens. It is precisely because of this that many netizens were optimistic about Quan Hongchan and Sun Yingsha in this selection of the top ten international athletes by Xinhua News Agency, but they did not expect that Zheng Qinwen…

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…