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Yasiris Ortiz delivered an energetic and inspiring live table tennis exhibition at the Andrew Freedman Home during the Bronx Brilliance: Health is Wealth gathering. As part of the Community Enterprise Accelerator, this event celebrated wellness, entrepreneurship, and the strength of the Bronx community.
Representing Spin & Learn, Yasiris brought her signature passion to the table—literally—proving that sport can be a powerful vehicle for health and empowerment. Her exhibition not only entertained but also emphasized the importance of physical activity in community-building and personal development.
Surrounded by supporters, community leaders, and fellow changemakers, the event created a vibrant atmosphere focused on collaboration, vitality, and shared purpose. The crowdâ€s energy reflected a collective commitment to wellness and innovation in the Bronx.
Special thanks to:
- The Andrew Freedman Home for hosting
- Bronx Brilliance Community Enterprise Accelerator for organizing
- Catelyn Anne Photography for capturing the moments
- All attendees and partners who made this day memorable
Stay tuned for more community events, wellness initiatives, and table tennis exhibitions from Spin & Learn and our incredible team.
#BronxBrilliance #YasirisOrtiz #TableTennis #HealthWellness #CommunityAccelerator #AndrewFreedmanHome #SpinandLearn #NewYorkEvents
Wow. What a breathtaking Olympic Singles week that was across both the Menâ€s and Womenâ€s events.
On the Menâ€s side, we saw the Gold go to China, but the Silver heading to Sweden as Truls Moregardh produced one of the biggest Olympic shocks of all time by knocking out Wang Chuqin before pushing Fan Zhendong hard in the final.
On the Womenâ€s side, we saw continued Chinese domination of table tennis as China took both the Gold and Silver medals. Chen Meng prevailed over the in-form Sun Yingsha for her 2nd Olympic title, a feat completed by so few in history.
Here are the 5 things we learnt from the event (from a coach and long-time table tennis fan).
Page Contents (Quick Links)
The Chinese Menâ€s Team Are Beatable
For the first time since 2004, the Menâ€s Singles final wasnâ€t contested by two Chinese players.
It was the first time since 1992 that the Chinese failed to take home 2 medals in this event.
Thatâ€s how monumental Truls Moregardhâ€s victory over Wang Chuqin was, with the favorite being knocked out in the Round of 32. Truls embodied the spirit of the only non-Asian Gold Medal winner in Menâ€s singles, Jan-Ove Waldner, to produce some electric displays to reach the final.
Add on the trouble Fan Zhendong had against both Japanâ€s Tomokazu Harimoto and Moregardh, then you have a potential recipe for a shake-up of Menâ€s table tennis for years to come.
Thanks to u/pscj on Reddit
Both Truls and his fellow podium-standing European, Felix Lebrun, bring something a bit unique to the table with their non-traditional styles of play. This should inspire a huge amount of confidence in players around the world to lean into their unique style rather than conforming to traditional technique.
You just have to watch the final to see how impactful the chop block (blocking a ball with side/back spin) was against Fan, with the shot being rarely seen across the professional Menâ€s game. Truls made it work time and time again as he nearly upset the odds.
All that being said, Fan Zhendong will still be taking the Gold medal back to China. He avoided the ignominy of losing 2 Olympic finals like his mentor Wang Hao (who lost 3 in a row), and cemented his legacy as one of the all-time greats of modern table tennis.
The men might be beatable, but they arenâ€t beaten just yet.
In Contrast, The Chinese Womenâ€s Team Are Unbeatable
Hereâ€s what I said before the tournament even started (in our Paris 2024 draw/brackets/results article):
“Thereâ€s an exceptionally high chance of Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng meeting each other in the final, and they wonâ€t be in any mood to put that at risk.â€
Sun Yingsha didnâ€t drop a single game until the final, scoring 232 points to her opponentâ€s 129. Chen Meng started slowly against Swedenâ€s Linda Bergstrom and the Netherlandâ€s Britt Eerland but still comfortably won those matches 4-1.
There was never a shadow of a doubt that the Gold and Silver medals would belong to China. Even Bronze-medal winning Hina Hayata of Japan lost 4-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-6, 11-2) against Silver-winning Sun Yingsha.
The only real surprise was Chen Meng beating her compatriot with a repeat scoreline from the Tokyo Olympics.
Even though Chen was entering as the reigning champion, she had been looking short of ideas in losing multiple times to Sun over the last couple of years. As the dominant force, and a huge fan favorite, the match was expected to be Sunâ€s procession to Olympic gold.
Instead, Chen joins the greats Zhang Yining and Deng Yaping as multiple-Gold medal winning athletes in the Womenâ€s Singles. What an incredible achievement.
The French Have 2 Future Stars On Their Hands
Every time I watched the tournament, the arena appeared to be full of fans cheering on athletes of all nations. However, as is often the case with table tennis, it was commonly the Chinese fans cheering the loudest whenever their representatives were playing.
That shifted dramatically as Felix and Alexis Lebrun started winning matches and putting themselves in medal contention.
Whilst Alexisâ€s defeat at the hands of Brazilâ€s Huge Calderano in the Round of 16 put the brakes on French dreaming temporarily, it was to be his 17-year old brother who avenged his brotherâ€s defeat by beating the same opponent 4-0 in a dramatic bronze medal match.
The French crowd played a huge role in reversing recent form between the Frenchman and Brazilian, with Felix having never taken a game off Hugo before. The “thrill from Brazil†Calderano seemed rattled as Felix dominated from the first to last point, earning Franceâ€s first Olympic table tennis medal since 1992 (Jean-Philippe Gatienâ€s Silver).
With the two Lebrun brothers, France has two worthy successors to players like Simon Gauzy and Emmanuel Lebesson. Theyâ€ll be challenging for world titles aplenty over the years to come.
Iâ€ve no doubt theyâ€ll be even more successful if the French public get behind them just like they did for Felix as he put on a Bronze-medal winning masterclass.
Olympic Broadcasters Should Be Ashamed
I have two major grips about the Olympic broadcasters (globally) and their treatment of table tennis as a sport.
The first applies primarily to the USA broadcaster Peacock who decided it was fully appropriate to show table tennis as a 4-way split screen using low-quality streams. The audio coverage came from just one of the screens, with no way to watch individual streams.
The Olympics is one of the major opportunities for table tennis to gain popularity across the general population and accelerate new players into watching / playing the sport.
Thatâ€s why itâ€s incredibly disappointing that one of the worldâ€s biggest and richest markets broadcast table tennis in a way that makes it terrible to watch.
Most people who actually wanted to watch the table tennis event have resorted to using VPNs into Australia where at least Channel 9 has free-to-air streams of all four tables. Try asking a casual viewer to do that.
Thanks to u/whostheme from Reddit
The other major problem has been a lack of interesting, engaging commentators. When you compare table tennis to tennis, this is one of the biggest differentiators. Tennis commentary brings in excellent broadcasters and sporting stars who share unique perspectives on the on-court action.
Table tennis, on the other hand, has just a handful of strong commentators (shout out to the excellent Adam Bobrow) who canâ€t commentate every match, and arenâ€t available across most broadcast streams.
That leaves a lot of silent matches, or matches commentated by people with limited knowledge of table tennis. As a sport, we need to bring people in and help educate them about whatâ€s happening in the match – the strategy, the spin, the history – so poor commentary leaves yet another huge missed opportunity.
Will lessons be learnt? I doubt it.
Service Rules Are A Huge Problem
For those unaware, serving in table tennis has a few simple rules:
- Players must throw the ball up vertically at least 16 cm (around 6 inches) without imparting any spin onto the ball.
- The ball must be struck whilst falling down, above and behind the end line of the table.
- At no point can the ball be obscured from the opponentâ€s eye-line, including by a hand or clothing.
- The ball must hit the servers side of the table before hitting your opponents side anywhere on the table (in singles) or diagonally across (in doubles).
The most obvious issue new players discuss is that professionals rarely throw the ball up ‘vertically†however in reality this has very little impact on the serve as long as the throw is mostly up rather than across.
The real issue thatâ€s had a spotlight shone on it from this Olympics is the ball being obscured at the point of contact.
This rule is incredibly important because the spin imparted on the ball is only determined by the direction of the racket at the point of contact. To try and deceive opponents, most players from casual to professional will move the racket in multiple directions during the serving motion.
Professionals are very good at this. Most normal people would have an exceptionally hard time just knowing what spin is on the ball, never mind actually returning the serve.
All of this means that itâ€s incredibly difficult to spot the spin on the ball without also seeing the exact contact point (hence the rule). Yet we saw multiple occasions where players complained about their opponent hiding the contact point behind their hand and/or body.
The most high-profile example of this was Truls Moregardh pointing out Wang Chuqinâ€s illegal serves in their Round of 32 clash, with the referee choosing to award Truls a yellow card for “time wastingâ€.
The root cause of the issue is that umpires simply canâ€t see whether the contact point is visible to the opponent unless itâ€s an extreme example of an illegal serve. From their vantage points at the side of the table, neither the umpire nor assistant umpire could be confident making that call.
With the decreasing costs of technology in sport, it feels like only a matter of time before a “hawk eye†style system becomes common at professional tournaments to help umpires out.
Bonus: Wang Chuqinâ€s Racket Controversy
In a moment of Olympic controversy, Wang Chuqin (the favorite for Menâ€s Singles Gold) had his racket stepped on and broken by a clumsy photographer just moments after he had won the Mixed Doubles title.
In his next match, he was knocked out of the Menâ€s Singles by a dominant Truls Moregardh. Unsurprisingly, the internet became awash with conspiracy theories. Was the photographer a Swedish plant? Or just someone who didnâ€t want China to win Gold?
The reality is the most likely scenario, which is that an unlucky photographer took a poorly-judged step in the scrum to get a medal with the Gold-medal winning doubles pair. Wang will lament placing his racket down in a place where that was even a possibility, something most club members try to avoid.
Credit to u/Thallium54 for grabbing this screenshot (Reddit).
Iâ€ll give him a pass this time though, he was celebrating winning an Olympic Gold medal after all.
Did it then have an impact on his ability to play against Truls? I think this is a massive stretch and a poor excuse for underperformance.
The top players have multiple identical rackets (and some with slightly different characteristics) and have trained hard using rackets each with miniscule performance variations. Any impact in actual performance is 100% down to a mental lapse instead of an equipment downgrade.
If you want to win a Gold medal, you need to be mentally strong. Wang Chuqin is experienced enough to handle swapping out identical equipment, so maybe it really was just the fact he came up against a better player on the day.
The real blame belongs with his coach, Xiao Zhan, who decided to make a big deal of the broken racket mere seconds after the Gold-medal winning moment. A bit of emotional intelligence would have told him to hide the racket and deal with the problem privately when the atmosphere was less emotionally charged. Perhaps then Wang would have been less psychologically affected by the equipment loss.
David’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 12, earning his first coaching license in 2012. He’s played in national team & individual competitions, although he prefers the more relaxed nature of a local league match! After earning his umpiring qualification in England, David moved to Australia and started Racket Insight to share information about the sport he loves.
Blade: Stiga WRB Offensive Classic | Forehand: Calibra LT | Backhand: Xiom Musa
Playstyle: The All-Rounder
Since 1923, the South Paris Arena has been hosting trade fairs and expos for the worldâ€s biggest industries. In 2024, it plays host to the worldâ€s best table tennis players for 2 weeks of world class entertainment.
Hereâ€s everything you need to know about the location for table tennisâ€s most prestigious event.
Page Contents (Quick Links)
Location
South Paris Arena is located in Paris†15th arrondissement, around 14km south of the main Olympic Village. For anyone familiar with the geography of Paris, thatâ€ll be around 4km south of the Eiffel Tower.
Itâ€s the most southern of the central Parisian venues. If youâ€re lucky enough to be in Paris, here are the nearest public transport options:
- Metro 13 – “Porte de Vanves” station, then 1.4 km to the venue
- Metro 8 – “Balard” station, then 750 m walk to the venue
- Tram T3a – “Georges Brassens” station, then 700 m walk to the venue
- Metro 12 – “Porte de Versailles” station, then 150 m walk to the venue
Sports Being Hosted At South Paris Arena
As youâ€ve likely spotted from the above location map, there are actually 4 sports being played at the South Paris Arena across 3 different arenas.
Table Tennis itself is being hosted in “South Paris Arena #4â€.
About South Paris Arena
South Paris Arena forms part of the Paris Expo complex, a 35 hectare park with 228,000 square meters of hall space. During normal years itâ€s used to host large exhibitions including boat and car shows.
2024 is very different, with the entire complex used for the Olympics.
Source: Olympics.com
The expo site consists of 7 halls (or pavilion spaces)
Hall 1 is the largest event space at 45,000 m^2, and will be hosting the volleyball competition throughout the entire games.
Hall 6 will host the preliminary rounds of the handball (with the final rounds held at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille) before transforming into the weightlifting venue for the final 5 days of the games.
We care mostly about Hall 4, which is where the table tennis competition will be taking place. Itâ€s a large 20,000m^2 space with a 10.5m ceiling, perfect for hosting the worldâ€s biggest table tennis event.
There’ll be space for around 6,500 spectators at each session in Hall 4, with tickets expected to be sold out for the entire 2 weeks.
Hall 5 will also be used partly as a training hall for table tennis competitors, alongside hospitality and broadcast rooms.
The rest of the space will be used for various accreditation, VIP, and partner events.
Source: Paris.fr
Expected Arena Setup
Over the course of the competition, expect the arena setup to shift based on the amount of matches that need to be played. Weâ€re expecting the initial number of competition tables to be between four (4) shifting down to just one (1) table for the medal matches.
It remains to be seen whether they will be able to move seating / playing space around, or if theyâ€ll simply illuminate just the tables that are being played on.
Speaking of tables, the ITTF has announced they are using DHS Rainbow 2 tables for the competition hall, each equipped with remote-controlled LED lights to be used between points/games.
You can learn more about the table tennis equipment being used at the Paris 2024 Olympics with our article on that topic.
Whilst we wonâ€t know the exact layout until the 27th July, we do have this artistâ€s rendering that gives a sense of the arena.
Source: Paris 2024/Viparis
David’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 12, earning his first coaching license in 2012. He’s played in national team & individual competitions, although he prefers the more relaxed nature of a local league match! After earning his umpiring qualification in England, David moved to Australia and started Racket Insight to share information about the sport he loves.
Blade: Stiga WRB Offensive Classic | Forehand: Calibra LT | Backhand: Xiom Musa
Playstyle: The All-Rounder
The Paris Olympics are, by far, the biggest and most-watched competition in competitive table tennis. In fact, itâ€s probably the only time you can watch table tennis on live television in most countries.
Watching table tennis on live TV just feels different. Once every four years, the main sports channels of every country show our beloved sport for everyone to see.
This does wonders for the table tennis community, with table tennis†popularity as a sport reaching highs that couldnâ€t be achieved in any other circumstance.
Depending on where you live, youâ€ll need to tune in to different channels to watch matches live or on demand. Weâ€ve tried to cover as many locations as possible in this guide.
Page Contents (Quick Links)
Where to watch for:
North America
United States
NBC and Telemundo will broadcast the Olympics from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET daily.
In addition, NBC Sports Digital will stream the Olympics on its TV Everywhere platforms. You can watch them on NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, the NBC Sports App, the NBC App, and all of the other NBC apps.
You can watch the Olympics on mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs.
Canada
CBC holds the rights to broadcast the Olympics in Canada.
Viewers from Canada will be able to watch the Olympics on the CBC channel and partner networks TSN and Sportsnet.
In addition, you will be able to watch live events on the free CBC Gem streaming service, CBCâ€s Paris 2024 website, and the CBC Paris 2024 app.
South America
Argentina
TyC Sports holds the rights to broadcast the Olympics on TV in Argentina.
Youâ€ll be able to watch the event live on the TyC Sports channel and its streaming platform, TyC Sports Play.
In addition, youâ€ll be able to follow the Olympics through the Claro Sports Olympics channel on YouTube.
Brazil
TV Globo and SporTV will be the channels to broadcast the Paris 2024 Olympics in Brazil. Theyâ€ll provide comprehensive coverage every day of the competition.
Europe
France
Youâ€ll be able to watch the Olympics on France 2, France 3, France 4, and France 5 and France Télévisions app.
UK
The BBC holds the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the UK.
There will be live TV coverage across BBC One, BBC Two, and BBC iPlayer, providing access to all 32 events at Paris 2024.
In addition, a nightly highlights programme will recap all the best bits.
Spain
You will be able to follow the Olympics via the RTVE channel and its affiliates. In addition, youâ€ll also be able to watch the Olympics live on the RTVE Play app.
RTVE will broadcast 400 hours of every sport on La 1, Teledeporte, and La 2.4.
Sweden
Warner Bros. Discovery has the exclusive rights to the live broadcasts from Paris in 2024.
In addition, Swedenâ€s national public TV broadcaster Sverige Television will feature a programme every evening including the best of the action from the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Denmark
You will be able to watch the Olympics on TV 2â€s channels. They may be followed on TV 2â€s channels and TV 2 PLAY.
Asia
China
CMG, the state-owned China Media Group, will broadcast the Olympics. This means youâ€ll be able to follow them on the CCTV channel.
In addition, other rights owners are Migu, Douyin, Kuaishou, and Tencent, so you can expect additional Olympics coverage on their channels and platforms.
Japan
The Japan Consortium owns the rights to the Olympics, so you can expect Olympics coverage on all of their channels, including NHK General TV, Fuji TV, Nippon TV, TBS, TV Asahi, and TV Tokyo.
South Korea
Youâ€ll be able to watch the Olympics on either channel 6, 9, or 11.
Oceania
Australia
The 2024 Olympic Games will be broadcast in Australia on more than 40 free-to-air channels under the Nine Network.
Nine will be providing 24/7 coverage across its main TV channel, 9Gem and 9Now.
Streaming platform 9Now will have more than 40 channels, allowing viewers to watch whatever event they want throughout the games.
Africa
Nigeria
Nigeria, and most African countries, will be able to follow the Olympics through Supersport.
Are WTT Showing Any Matches Live / Playback?
No. WTT is the circuit created by the ITTF for table tennis athletes to compete in.
The Olympics are outside of the scope of the WTT circuit, so we canâ€t expect any Olympics matches on the WTT channel as they are two completely different things.
YouTube Channels Showing Highlights / Live Matches?
There is the official Olympics channel, which will show highlights and stories from the Olympics, but probably not live matches.
For context, Ma Long beat Fan Zhendong on July 30th at the Tokyo Olympics, and that match was uploaded to the Olympics channel on August 13th.
I believe something like this will happen for these Olympics as well, so we can expect high-quality replays sometime after the matches are played.
In addition, some countries will have live coverage on YouTube, but this content will have restrictions.
Some parts of the world will have exclusive YouTube channels covering Olympics matches and highlights, while others will not.
It goes without saying that table tennis matches from the Olympics uploaded by unaccredited sources will be taken down as fast as possible due to copyright reasons.
Alvaroâ€s a qualified ITTF Level 1 Coach who’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked within the top 50 in his native Argentina. He loves to compete in provincial tournaments and is always looking for ways to improve. Alvaro made his favorite memories with a racket in hand, and he joined the RacketInsight team to share his passion with other players!
Blade: Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC | Forehand: Butterfly Dignics 09c | Backhand: Butterfly Tenergy 19
Playstyle: The Controller
The womenâ€s singles event competition is by far, the most important tournament any female table tennis player can win.
Deng Yaping and Zhang Yining are considered the two greatest female players in the history of the sport because they have won two womenâ€s singles events at the Olympics.
Such is the importance of the Olympics. Being an Olympic singles medallist is what separates great players from legends.
Weâ€ll cover the structure, schedule, and stats of the womenâ€s singles event, historically, and for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. Letâ€s begin!
Page Contents (Quick Links)
Womenâ€s Singles Event Structure
The womenâ€s singles eventâ€s structure is as follows:
Around 70 players will play in the Olympics, depending on qualification. Weâ€ll go into how to qualify for the event in the following section.
Those 70 players will be narrowed down to 32 by playing a small preliminary set of matches.
Once thatâ€s done, the round of 32 of the Olympics†main draw starts. This is a single elimination bracket, and itâ€s the final instance of the tournament.
Matches are played to the best of 7 games. Each game is played up to 11 points, with the winner needing to be ahead by 2 points.
The Olympics is quite a special event because every match is played to the best of 7 games.
In the World Table Tennis circuit, most matches are played to the best of 5 games, and best of 7 matches are reserved only for the finals of some special events.
This speaks to the importance of the Olympics when it comes to table tennis.
For some other sports, such as soccer, the Olympics donâ€t matter as much. For table tennis, every single match is at least as important as the biggest tournament finals.
For many players, representing their national team on the absolute biggest stage is the highlight of their whole careers.
Most of them have won countless tournaments, but what theyâ€re most proud of, is that they were able to play even one single match at the Olympic Games.
How to Qualify
The rules for the womenâ€s singles event state that each country can only register up to 2 players. This rule has an upside and a downside.
The upside is that the Olympics are by far the most diverse event in world table tennis. Because of this qualification rule, we get to see players from at least 35 different countries.
The downside to this rule is that lots of top-class players arenâ€t able to participate in the event. A few countries dominate the individual world rankings, with many players falling out of the Olympic qualification spots.
As for how to qualify, thirty-two places will be allocated based on the womenâ€s team event. Each of the 16 qualified countries will be able to select two female athletes to compete in the womenâ€s singles event.
Twenty-two more spots will be attributed to individuals through the continental meets organized by the ITTF (six each for Asia and Europe, five for the Americas, four for Africa, and one for Oceania).
A maximum of fifteen players will also qualify through the ITTF World Singles Ranking list as of June 18, 2024.
Finally, any remaining spots are entitled to nations under the Universality system. This is designed to allow under-represented countries access to different Olympic events and any places are decided by a central committee.
This unique qualifying method is one of many things that make the Olympics so special.
Great players will miss out on qualification
The strongest nations in the sport are China, Japan, South Korea, and Germany, among others.
These countries have more than 2 world-class players, but they can only choose 2 to represent them in the Olympics.
For example, China has 5 players in the world’s top 10, but only 2 of them will be able to play. This means that we wonâ€t be able to see 3 of the worldâ€s top 10 players on the biggest stage.
If the event selected the top 70 players in the ITTF rankings, 13 would be Chinese, 8 would be Korean, 7 would be Japanese, 4 would be German, etc.
The Olympic system makes it possible for athletes from more than 35 countries to compete, and it makes it easier for non-Chinese players to win the event (or at least get 2nd-3rd place).
China has historically been the strongest country in table tennis. If all the Chinese athletes within the top 70 could compete, the event would be nearly guaranteed to be won by China, as they have 13 of the best players in the world.
Given that only two Chinese players can compete, it is a lot easier for athletes from other countries to upset them. There is very little room for error.
At the Olympics, weâ€re guaranteed to have at least 2 non-Chinese athletes in the semi-finals, making it possible for other countries to get to the latter stages and achieve Olympic bronze at the very least.
Even then, the Chinese athletes have been able to dominate their opposition time and time again, so much so, that theyâ€ve won every edition since the womenâ€s singles event was first held in 1988.
Event Draw & Results
Here’s the full draw for Paris 2024’s Olympic Women’s Singles event. This graphic will continue to be updated throughout the Olympics with the latest results and match scores.
Paris 2024 Top Seeds
Sun Yingsha – China
Source: CGTN
World #1 Sun Yingsha is winning tournaments left and right, and she isnâ€t showing signs of stopping anytime soon.
Sun has been dominating the scene these past months, to such an extent, that itâ€s easier to name what she hasnâ€t won than what she has.
The only important event in which Sun participated and didnâ€t win was the Singapore Smash.
The other tournaments in which she participated this past year were the WTT Champions Incheon, the Star Contender in Doha, and the World Team Table Tennis Championships. She won them all.
And, in 2023, she was the champion of several other important events, such as the World Championships, the WTT Finals Nagoya, the WTT Champions Xinxiang, and the Star Contenders in Ljubljana and Lanzhou.
As you can see, Sun is the player to beat at the moment.
The WTT Champions is one of the most important tournaments in the whole WTT circuit. It gives 1000 points, 400 more than the Star Contenders.
In this event, Sun completely crushed all of her opposition. She dropped one game against Linda Bergstrom in the round of 16, and she dropped two more in the quarterfinals against Hina Hayata.
After that, she beat Wang Yidi 4-0 in the semi-finals, and she completely outclassed compatriot Wang Manyu in the final, with a score of 11-7, 11-5, 11-4, 11-4.
I consider this result an extremely important one, as Wang Manyu is the likeliest #2 Chinese player to participate in the Olympics, as sheâ€s the current world #2.
Sun Yingsha is, by far, my favorite to win the event. I believe that Sun is a generational talent and that she can become one of the best female table tennis players of all time.
Her playstyle is a very dynamic and oppressive one. She has nearly uncountable strengths and virtually no weaknesses.
Sun is a very solid and decisive player. Sheâ€s extremely strong in backhand to backhand rallies, but she isnâ€t afraid to step around and hit winners with her forehand.
Speaking of forehand, I believe that Sun has the best forehand on the womenâ€s circuit, and itâ€s not like she needs it, as she could beat most players while playing backhand exchanges.
This is why sheâ€s so strong. She doesnâ€t need to step around as sheâ€s one of the best in backhand rallies, but she does because she has one of the most effective, powerful, and consistent forehands on tour.
Sun also has extremely good footwork and coordination, with which she can often set up her deadly forehand attacks.
In addition, Sun Yingsha has experience on the biggest stage, as she reached the final of the last Tokyo Olympics, in which she was bested by Chen Meng 4 games to 2.
Sun had beaten everyone sheâ€d faced 4-0 up until the final match. She fought hard but she eventually lost a very close match in the final.
However, Sun has improved a lot since then, to the point that she looks like a completely different player now. Will she be able to claim Olympic gold this time around? Weâ€ll have to wait and see.
Wang Manyu – China
Source: China Daily
Wang Manyu is the world’s #2 player, and for good reason. This past year, Wang was able to win the event that grants the most points, the Singapore Smash.
In this event, she took out many world-class players, such as Mima Ito (4-2), the current Olympic champion Chen Meng (4-1), and finally, world #3 Wang Yidi (4-1),
However, that is the only event Wang won, as most other important events were won by Sun Yingsha.
Wang Manyuâ€s style is very interesting. Her main weapon is her backhand loop and counterloop.
Wang has an extremely strong backhand loop both in terms of speed and spin. She isnâ€t like other players in the sense that she wants to outlast her opponents in open rallies. What Wang wants is to overpower her opponents with spin and speed.
One of Wangâ€s favorite plays is to serve topspin and counterloop the next ball, either with her forehand or her backhand.
Wang likes to stay near the middle of the table to cover more space with her deadly backhand. She is also able to pull this playstyle off because sheâ€s quite a tall player, standing at 176cm. Her wingspan definitely helps when covering shots to her wide backhand.
Hina Hayata – Japan
Source: The Japan News
Hina Hayata is currently the best-ranked non-Chinese player in the circuit. If I had to choose a player who could beat the Chinese, Iâ€d say itâ€s Hina.
Hina is one of the most well-rounded players in the circuit. Sheâ€s extremely fast, and sheâ€s very good at the short game. When she narrowly lost against Sun Yinghsa, she was consistently coming out on top in the touch game.
Hinaâ€s high toss serve is extremely effective, and she likes to use it to set up 3rd ball attacks. In addition, sheâ€s a left-handed player, which opens up many more possibilities and angles for her.
Sheâ€s very good at playing backhand exchanges down the line, but she can also take the ball early to play the ball cross-court and surprise her opponents with backhand winners.
Hina has tons of resources that she can use. She has a great backhand flick, sheâ€s very good at touching short, and sheâ€s great in the open game.
It will be interesting to see whether the world #6 will be able to beat the Chinese players on the biggest stage.
Shin Yubin – South Korea
Source: The Guardian Nigeria
World #7 Shin Yubin is yet another very exciting player to keep an eye on.
The Korean player thrives on open rallies. Her best attribute is using her opponentâ€s speed against them.
She wonâ€t hesitate to serve long or serve topspin to get into the rally. It doesnâ€t matter if her opponent attacks first, as Shin is extremely good at countering. In fact, her whole game is based around that.
Shinâ€s biggest strengths are her timing and her coordination. She will take most of her shots in front of her to counterattack and take even more time away from their opponents.
I believe sheâ€s one of the players with the most potential to beat the Chinese based on how risky her playstyle is. Shinâ€s playstyle is extremely high risk, high reward, and that can surely pay off in Paris.
Paris 2024 Match Schedule
The schedule of the womenâ€s singles event is as follows:
The first rounds will be played from Saturday 27th all the way until Wednesday the 31st. This will include all of the rounds before the quarter-finals matches.
The quarter-final matches are to be played on Thursday the 1st, the semi-finals will be played on Friday the 2nd, and the grand final will be played the day after on Saturday the 3rd
Womenâ€s Singles History
Table including past winners from each Olympics in history.
The womenâ€s singles event has historically been nearly completely dominated by Chinese athletes.
28 Olympic medals have been awarded in this event. Of those 28 medals, 19 were awarded to Chinese athletes (68%).
Whatâ€s more, the Chinese athletes have won every single competition until now, and theyâ€ve only dropped two second-place medals to Chen Jing and Kim Hyang-mi. Their success has been almost total.
In comparison to the menâ€s singles event, the womenâ€s singles event is even more favorable to China. In the menâ€s singles event, there have been non-Chinese winners a total of 3 times, and the medal distribution is also more even.
Two athletes have been able to win back-to-back Olympic singles titles: Deng Yaping and Zhang Yining.
Starting with Deng, she had a very interesting playstyle. Standing at 1.50 meters tall (4′ 11″), she was initially deemed too short to play in the national team.
Eventually, she was promoted to the senior national team due to her incredible technical prowess. Deng played with long pimples on her backhand side, and she used them masterfully.
She wasnâ€t a defender, though. Rather, sheâ€d stay close to the table, attacking relentlessly on her forehand side and playing a mixture of strokes with her long pips.
She liked to step around and hit winners with her forehand whenever possible. Otherwise, she could attack, block, or chop block with her long pimples. This forehand and backhand combination was what led to her huge success.
Hereâ€s a video showing the moments in which she won both of her Olympic titles:
I also highly suggest watching her matches, as her style was very unique.
The other player who won two Olympic singles finals in a row was Zhang Yining. In my opinion, there was never such a dominant female player as Zhang. Zhang was just years ahead of anyone else.
She was dominant to such an extent that she won her first Olympic gold in straight games: 11-8, 11-7, 11-2, 11-2.
If I had to define her playstyle with one word, itâ€d be “elegantâ€.
She was equally strong on both wings. On her forehand side, she was a prodigious looper, she looped with extreme spin and speed, and she could place the ball anywhere on the table.
Her backhand was also extremely strong because she simply wouldnâ€t miss. She had an incredible block, an insane touch, and a superb ability to place the ball.
Hereâ€s a video of Zhang playing against Japanese legend Fukuhara Ai:
Alvaroâ€s a qualified ITTF Level 1 Coach who’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked within the top 50 in his native Argentina. He loves to compete in provincial tournaments and is always looking for ways to improve. Alvaro made his favorite memories with a racket in hand, and he joined the RacketInsight team to share his passion with other players!
Blade: Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC | Forehand: Butterfly Dignics 09c | Backhand: Butterfly Tenergy 19
Playstyle: The Controller
Introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Mixed Doubles is one of the most exciting tournaments in the table tennis calendar.
Itâ€s a rare opportunity to see the top male and female players competing together in teams to bring Olympic medals back to their countries.
The mixed doubles event was considered by many (ourselves included) to be the best event this past Olympics, and chances are that itâ€ll be just as good, if not better, this time around in Paris.
Japan will be looking to defend its title, China is thirsty for revenge, and the other countries are more than ready to challenge them.
In this article, weâ€ll cover the structure, schedule, and stats of the mixed doubles event, historically, and for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. Letâ€s begin!
Page Contents (Quick Links)
Mixed Doubles Event Structure
32 players will compete forming 16 doubles pairs.
Each nation can only have one team in the competition, so athletes from 16 different nations will compete against each other in a single elimination bracket.
Each match will be played in a best-of-7 format, something quite unusual for a doubles event.
The 16 doubles pairs participating in the event will qualify directly if they meet certain criteria, and there are no qualifying rounds.
How to Qualify
The 16 places are distributed as follows:
- 1 spot has already been given to the host country (France)
- 6 continental qualification tournaments (Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North and Latin America) will award the mixed doubles spot to the winning pairings from each continent.
- 4 places will be awarded to the semi-finalists of the designated qualifying competition, scheduled for 11-12 April 2024 in Havirov, Czechia.
- Lastly, the last 5 highest-ranked pairs that hadnâ€t qualified by any of the other criteria by May 7, 2024, will be awarded the remaining places based on the ITTF World Ranking.
The pairings that have already qualified by having won their continental qualifying competition come from Germany, Australia, China, Egypt, Brazil, and Cuba.
ContinentDates HeldMens TeamResultsOceania2 – 3 September 2023Nicholas Lum & Minhyung Jee (AUS)ResultsAsia3 – 10 September 2023Lin Gaoyuan & Wang Yidi (CHN)ResultsEurope23 June – 2 July 2023Dang Qiu & Nina Mittelham (GER)ResultsAmericas29 October – 5 November 2023Jorge Campos & Daniela Carrazana Fonseca (CUB)
Vitor Ishiy & Bruna Takahashi (BRA)ResultsAfrica11 – 17 September 2023Omar Assar & Dina MeshrefResults
Despite Lin Gaoyuan & Wang Yidi winning the Asia event, their quota was declined by the Chinese Olympic commitee, meaning the Chinese team instead qualified through their World Rankings – Wang Chuqin & Sun Yingsha.
The Mixed Doubles World Qualification event in March 2024 allowed for 4 additional qualified pairings.
Qualified PairingRi Jong Sik & Kim Kum Yong (PRK)Wong Chun Ting & Doo Hoi Kem (HKG)Alvaro Robles & Maria Xiao (ESP)Kristian Karlsson & Christine Kallberg (SWE)World XD Qualification Event
Finally, Tuesday 7th May was the key date when the remaining 5 pairs were selected based on the ITTF Mixed Doubles World Rankings.
Qualified PairingLim Jonghoon & Shin Yubin (KOR)Tomokazu Harimoto & Hina Hayata (JPN)Lin Yun-Ju & Chen Szu-Yu (TPE)Ovidiu Ionescu & Bernadette Szocs (ROU)World Ranking Qualification
The final (16th) spot belongs to a French mixed doubles pairing as the host nation, selected by the French NOC as Alexis Lebrun and Yuan Jia Nan.
Mixed Doubles Draw & Results
Here’s the draw for the Mixed Doubles competition, with 15 matches in total required to find the gold medalists. This diagram will be kept up-to-date throughout the games.
Paris 2024 Top Seeds
Check out our full guide to the top seeds at Paris 2024 for a more in-depth analysis.
China
Even though Japan won the previous edition of the mixed doubles event, China is still the favorite to win the event.
In fact, if you take a look at the men’s and womenâ€s world top 5, there is only 1 non-Chinese player.
At the time of writing, the menâ€s top 5 are all Chinese, and the womenâ€s top 5 is composed of 4 Chinese athletes and 1 Japanese athlete (Hina Hayata).
Also unsurprisingly, itâ€s a Chinese pairing (Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha) who are the world’s #1 mixed doubles pairing.
Wang and Sun are a very successful pairing, and they have been winning events all over the world in both singles and doubles.
In singles, both players won the WTT Finals which is one of the most important events in the calendar. In addition, Sun won the Singapore Smash and the World Table Tennis Championships.
Theyâ€re equally as successful as a pairing, though. Wang and Sun won the World Table Tennis Championships (the Singapore Smash) and many other events this past year.
Wang and Sun are the strongest mixed doubles pairing because their styles complement each other perfectly.
Both players love to take the initiative and they are extremely fast when playing out rallies. They hit with tons of power and they love to take the ball early.
This style is perfect for doubles, as taking the initiative and playing close to the table takes lots of time away from their opponents.
If they donâ€t attack first, they still win most points, as Wang and Sun are masters of the counter topspin shot.
In addition to being faster than virtually everyone else, Sun is a righty and Wang is a lefty, which means that they donâ€t have to rotate completely as two righties or two lefties would.
They will be the doubles pairings to beat this Olympics.
Japan
Japan are the first and current champions, and theyâ€ll look to defend their title in Paris.
Given that gold medallist Jun Mizutani has retired from international competition, theyâ€ll try to accomplish this feat with a completely different doubles pairing.
The confirmed pairing that will represent Japan in this Paris Olympics is Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata.
Both players are in the prime of their careers, they are both top 10 in their respective singles rankings and, together, they are ranked #2 in the mixed doubles rankings.
I have to say I would be very surprised if this wasnâ€t the pairing to represent Japan, as they have fared exceptionally well together this past year.
In 2023, they won the WTT Contender Antalya and they reached the final of the most important events, the World Table Tennis Championships, the Singapore Smash, and the WTT Star Contender Lanzhou.
Even though Harimoto and Hayata have been having excellent results, they will have to find a way to beat the Chinese pairing.
They have reached 4 finals this past year, winning one and losing three.
The one time they won, they beat Felix Lebrun and Prithika Pavade, a very strong pairing for sure.
However, the three times they lost, they lost against Chinese pairings. They lost twice to the most probable Chinese double pairing, Wang and Sun, and they lost another final to Lin Shidong and Kuai Man.
Hina Hayata and Tomokazu Harimoto are very stable and strong players. They both thrive in the rally and they make few unforced mistakes.
They are extremely well-rounded, offensive players who dominate the whole pallet of offensive strokes. Both of them also have superb blocking skills.
Itâ€ll be interesting to see if they can come up with strategies to upset the Chinese pairings that have beat them time and time again.
Chinese Taipei
Chinese Taipei is the third team I believe has a real chance of winning the event.
The Chinese Taipei pairing took bronze last time around and they will surely keep at least one of the players from that team: Lin Yun-Ju.
The last time they competed in this event, Lin played with Cheng I-Ching. Cheng is also still the best player from Chinese Taipei on the womens side. As of writing this article in early 2024, sheâ€s ranked #10 in the world (compared to Linâ€s #8 ranking).
Even though Cheng I-Ching is the highest-ranked player by a wide margin, the Chinese Taipei NOC have selected Chen Szu-Yu (as we predicted) because Lin Yun-Ju has recently been competing with WR #41 Chen Szu-Yu.
Now we know that Chen Szu-Yu and Lin Yun-Ju are going to be the Chinese Taipei pairing, we can look at their performance. They have done extremely well together this past year.
They won the WTT Contender Tunis and the WTT Contender Muscat, they reached the final of the WTT Contender Almaty and the semifinal of the Singapore Smash.
Chen and Lin make a great doubles pairing because both love using their backhand flick to open up the point.
They are also extremely strong in open rallies, and they donâ€t have to move as much because theyâ€re a righty and a lefty.
South Korea
Team Korea is a strong contender for Olympic gold, no doubt about it.
South Koreaâ€s doubles pairing is ranked #3 in the world, composed of Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin.
Both players are extremely strong in singles. Shin is currently ranked #8 in the world, and Lim is ranked #18 himself. Lim and Shin are both offensive players who like to hit the ball with power.
They synergize wonderfully together, and they did very well this past year, winning two Contender events and reaching the final stages of 10 events (semi-final or better).
In addition, they are also a lefty and a righty, and they both have great forehands. However, they lack the firepower of some of the other top seeds.
Paris 2024 Match Schedule
The schedule of the mixed doubles event is as follows:
To put it simply, there are 4 rounds (round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final), and one round will be played per day, starting from Saturday 27th.
The round of 16 will be played on Saturday 27th, the quarter-finals matches will be played on Sunday 28th, the semi-finals on Monday 29th, and the final and 3rd place match on Tuesday 30th.
Mixed Doubles Event History
The Mixed Doubles event was introduced in the 2020 Olympics, so thereâ€s only one edition we can speak about. However, it was one of the best events this past Olympics, so thereâ€s plenty to discuss.
The 4 teams that reached the semi-finals were Japan, China, Chinese Taipei, and France.
China (Xu Xin / Liu Shiwen) defeated France (Emmanuel Lebesson / Jia Nan Yuan) 4 games to 0 in dominant fashion.
Leading to the finals, China had only dropped one game in the first round against Mo Zhang and Eugene Wang (Canada).
On the other side of the bracket, Japan defeated Chinese Taipei 4-1.
Japanâ€s path to the final wasnâ€t as simple as Chinaâ€s, as they had to face Germany (Patrick Franziska / Petrissa Solja) in the quarter-finals.
This match would be the turning point for team Japan, and it was one of the toughest matches of Ito and Mizutaniâ€s career.
Mizutani and Ito were down 2-1 and 3-2 in games. They were able to take the 6th game 11-8 and they played probably the most insane decider game in the history of the Olympic games.
The Japanese pair lost the 5 first points, switching sides 0-5 down. The situation was looking bleak for Ito and Mizutani but there was still room to fight back.
However, Japan was able to seize only 4 of the following 6 points, going down 2-9. They were virtually out of the Olympics at that point. It turns out that Jun Mizutani had different plans.
Jun managed to hit three forehand winners to put the score 5-9, and Germany called a timeout.
Japan won the following point but Germany scored a point off of a net ball, putting them 10-6 ahead with 4 match points.
At that point, everything would change. The Japanese team won the next 4 points by attacking with tons of power. Each of the 4 points they won was from a power loop.
The Japanese team displayed great courage to fight back but not all was done.
They had to save 3 more match points to win the match 16-14 in the decider, after coming back from 2-9 down. In total, they saved 7 match points.
If you havenâ€t seen this match, I highly recommend you watch it, or at least watch the deciding game. In fact, Iâ€ll link the last game here so you can watch it for yourselves! It is by far one of the most legendary feats of the Olympics when it comes to table tennis.
As for the third-place match, Chinese Taipei handily beat France 4-0 to take the bronze medal. It was now time for the final.
The final was a rollercoaster of emotions. China was the favorite, by far, but Japan was in top form.
China quickly took the lead 2-0. Mima Ito got off to a slow start, missing many easy shots.
In fact, the Japanese team was so strong because Mima Ito had a very aggressive playstyle that paid off incredibly well when she was able to land her attacks on the table. That didnâ€t happen consistently enough in the first two games, and China was comfortably in the lead.
In the following 3 games, however, everything would change. Team Japan gave a masterclass on how to play doubles.
The Japanese pairing won the following 3 games playing their best. Mima Ito stayed close to the table hitting and counter-hitting with great pace and speed, while Jun Mizutani dropped back a few steps to loop and counterloop with tons of spin and consistency from mid-distance.
Those 3 games showed how harmonic the playstyle of team Japan really was.
In the 6th game, however, China bounced back. They played more safely, they hardly missed any balls and they were able to seize the 6th 11-6. Team Japan had to play yet another deciding game.
This time would be very different, though. Japan came out guns blazing, they stepped on the gas and they never let go.
They won point after point and, all of a sudden, they were up 8-0 in the deciding game of an Olympic final, against China of all countries!
The last game almost looked like a victory lap on home soil. The Japanese pair finally won the last game 11-6, giving the home crowd a huge reason to celebrate.
As you can see, the mixed doubles event was epic! This yearâ€s edition is definitely NOT to be missed.
Alvaroâ€s a qualified ITTF Level 1 Coach who’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked within the top 50 in his native Argentina. He loves to compete in provincial tournaments and is always looking for ways to improve. Alvaro made his favorite memories with a racket in hand, and he joined the RacketInsight team to share his passion with other players!
Blade: Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC | Forehand: Butterfly Dignics 09c | Backhand: Butterfly Tenergy 19
Playstyle: The Controller
The menâ€s singles event competition is a make-or-break tournament for the best table tennis players in the circuit.
Ma Long is considered the greatest player of all time, primarily because heâ€s the only player who has won two menâ€s singles events at the Olympics.
In contrast, Wang Hao will always be remembered as the player who lost 3 Olympic finals in a row.
Such is the importance of the Olympics. Being an Olympic singles medallist is what separates great players from legends.
Weâ€ll cover the structure, schedule, and stats of the menâ€s singles event, historically, and for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. Letâ€s begin!
Page Contents (Quick Links)
Menâ€s Singles Event Structure
The menâ€s singles eventâ€s structure is as follows:
Around 70 players will play in the Olympics, depending on qualification. Weâ€ll go into how to qualify for the event in the following section.
Those 70 players will be narrowed down to 32 by playing a small preliminary set of matches.
Once thatâ€s done, the round of 32 of the Olympics†main draw starts. This is a single elimination bracket, and itâ€s the final instance of the tournament.
Matches are played to the best of 7 games. Each game is played up to 11 points, with the winner needing to be ahead by 2 points.
The Olympics is quite a special event because every match is played to the best of 7 games.
In the World Table Tennis circuit, most matches are played to the best of 5 games, and best of 7 matches are reserved only for the finals of some special events.
This speaks to the importance of the Olympics when it comes to table tennis.
For some other sports, such as soccer, the Olympics donâ€t matter as much. For table tennis, every single match is at least as important as the biggest tournament finals.
Argentine Olympian Gastón Alto (right) showing off his Tokyo Olympics tattoo.
For many players, representing their national team on the absolute biggest stage is the highlight of their whole careers.
Most of them have won countless tournaments, but what theyâ€re most proud of, is that they were able to play even one single match at the Olympic Games.
How to Qualify
The rules for the menâ€s singles event state that each country can only register up to 2 players. This rule has an upside and a downside.
The upside is that the Olympics are by far the most diverse event in world table tennis. Because of this qualification rule, we get to see players from at least 35 different countries.
The downside to this rule is that lots of top-class players arenâ€t able to participate in the event. A few countries dominate the individual world rankings, with many players falling out of the Olympic qualification spots.
As for how to qualify, thirty-two places will be allocated based on the menâ€s team event. Each of the 16 qualified countries will be able to select two male athletes to compete in the menâ€s singles event.
Twenty-two more spots will be attributed to individuals through the continental meets organized by the ITTF (six each for Asia and Europe, five for the Americas, four for Africa, and one for Oceania).
A maximum of fifteen players will also qualify through the ITTF World Singles Ranking list as of June 18, 2024.
Finally, any remaining spots are entitled to nations under the Universality system. This is designed to allow under-represented countries access to different Olympic events and any places are decided by a central committee.
This unique qualifying method is one of many things that make the Olympics so special.
Great players will miss out on qualification
The strongest nations in the sport are China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, and Sweden, among others.
These countries have more than 2 world-class players, but they can only choose 2 to represent them in the Olympics.
For example, China has 6 players in the world’s top 10, but only 2 of them will be able to play. This means that we wonâ€t be able to see 4 of the worldâ€s top 10 players on the biggest stage.
If the event selected the top 70 players in the ITTF rankings, 10 would be Chinese, 7 would be German, 7 would be Korean, 6 would be Japanese, etc.
The Olympic system makes it possible for athletes from more than 35 countries to compete, and it makes it easier for non-Chinese players to win the event (or at least get 2nd-3rd place).
China has historically been the strongest country in table tennis. If all the Chinese athletes within the top 70 could compete, the event would be nearly guaranteed to be won by China.
Given that only two Chinese players can compete, it is a lot easier for athletes from other countries to upset them. There is very little room for error.
This qualification system is also why the Men’s Singles at the Olympics is one of the only major global events in which there have been non-Chinese winners.
In contrast, in the most important World Table Tennis (WTT) events, the 4-5 best Chinese players get to play which results in lots of semi final stages consisting of 4 Chinese players.
At the Olympics, weâ€re guaranteed to have at least 2 non-Chinese athletes in the semi-finals, making it possible for other countries to get to the latter stages and achieve Olympic bronze at the very least.
Tournament Draw
Paris 2024 Top Seeds
Wang Chuqin – China
Source: CGTN
World #1 Wang Chuqin is winning tournaments left and right, and he isnâ€t showing signs of stopping anytime soon.
Wang has been dominating the scene these past months, as heâ€s won the WTT Finals Doha in January, and the WTT Star Contender Doha a week later.
The WTT Finals is one of the most important tournaments in the whole WTT circuit. Itâ€s the last tournament of the year, in which the top 16 players of the year compete head-to-head in the grand finale.
In this tournament, Wang Chuqin crushed the best players in the circuit one by one. In fact, he only dropped a single game in the whole competition against Felix Lebrun.
After beating Felix Lebrun 3-1, he bested Harimoto 3-0 to reach the semifinals.
The semifinals and final were played to the best of 7, the same format as the Olympics.
Wang only needed the minimum 8 games to win the event, as he overpowered Dang Qiu 4-0 before defeating world #1 Fan Zhendong in the final match, also 4-0.
A week later, he repeated this feat by winning the WTT Star Contender Doha, beating compatriot Lin Shidong in the final 4 games to 2.
As you can see, Wang Chuqin is looking virtually unstoppable right now.
Heâ€s one of the most agile players in the circuit, and he uses that agility to step around and hit forehand winners left and right. Itâ€s incredible to watch.
Itâ€s not like he needs to step around to his forehand, though, as heâ€s very consistent and dangerous in backhand-to-backhand rallies.
Another way he wins easy points is to play explosive backhands cross court. As heâ€s a left-handed player, he can play aggressively towards his opponentâ€s wide forehands with ease.
Wangâ€s also a master of the serve and receive game. His tricky serves allow for easy 3rd ball attack chances, and he possesses a very fast backhand flick, which he prioritizes when receiving to get on the offense from the get-go.
This thrilling playstyle is whatâ€s getting Wang titles left and right. Will the 23-year-old add an Olympic world medal to his cabinet? Weâ€ll have to wait and see.
Fan Zhendong – China
Source: CGTN
Back in February 2024, Fan Zhendong was flying high as the long-term world #1
In fact, Fan Zhendong won 2 of the 3 most important tournaments last year: The Singapore Smash in March 2023 and the World Table Tennis Championships, in May 2023.
Fan also won the WTT Champions Xinxiang in April 2023 and the WTT Star Contender Ljubljana in July 2023, where he beat Wang Chuqin 4-3.
After that, however, his playing level dipped slightly, and Wang Chuqin took his spot as the player to beat in the whole circuit.
Fan lost against Ma Long in the final of the Asian Table Tennis Championships, he lost 4-0 against Wang Chuqin in the WTT Finals in January 2024, and he had to retire against Lin Shidong due to injury in the WTT Star Contender Doha the following week.
As a result of this indifferent form, Fan has dropped down to #4 in the world behind both Ma Long and Liang Jingkun. Have the Chinese selectors made the wrong decision picking Fan?
Even though Fan Zhendong hasnâ€t been having the best results lately, we know what heâ€s capable of.
Fan Zhendong is probably the player with the best shot quality on the circuit. The amount of speed and spin he can generate on his shots is unmatched.
He loves to play close to the table, but he can also drop back a few steps to give himself more time to unleash all of his power.
Another of his strengths is the backhand-to-backhand rally. I donâ€t think there are many players, if any, that can stand toe to toe with Fan Zhendong in this respect, as he can generate tons of power and he seemingly never misses.
In addition, heâ€s one of the best servers in the sport, and he has probably the best reverse pendulum serve in the circuit, with which he loves to set up his mighty attacks.
Fan Zhendong has already reached an Olympic menâ€s singles final in Tokyo 2020, where he lost against Ma Long. Will he be able to win the event this time?
Tomokazu Harimoto – Japan
Source: Olympics.com
Tomokazu Harimoto has been one of the best, if not the best, non-Chinese players in the sport for more than 5 years now.
Tomokazu rose to international superstardom in 2018, when he shocked the world by beating Olympic champions Ma Long and Zhang Jike in the semi-final and final of the Japan Open. At the time, he was just 14 years old.
After that, he defeated Lin Gaoyuan in the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals by 4-1.
Harimoto is a very stable player and he loves to stay close to the table. Heâ€s one of the few players in the circuit that very rarely drops back to engage in counterloop rallies.
Instead, he prefers to stay close to the table at all times. Heâ€d rather block or counterloop shots over the bounce than step back to counterloop them, as this takes more time away from his opponents.
Harimoto has a very versatile style, as he loops, counterloops, blocks, pushes, or flicks, depending on the situation.
His biggest strengths are his stability and his reflexes. Heâ€s incredibly good at not committing unforced mistakes, and heâ€s great at returning the ball close to the table.
He loops with very high effectiveness, and he blocks the ball incredibly well when heâ€s attacked.
Itâ€ll be interesting to see whether weâ€ll see the best version of Harimoto, as heâ€s shown us heâ€s capable of beating Olympic champions time and time again.
Lin Yun-Ju – Chinese Taipei
Source: Butterfly
It is not an overstatement to say that Lin Yun-Ju revolutionized table tennis. The current form of table tennis that we know of today, is very influenced by Lin Yun-Ju.
When Lin came into prominence in 2019, he beat virtually every top player in the circuit, including Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, and Timo Boll, among others.
How did he do it? He had the best serve receive in the world by a very wide margin, at that time.
Lin Yun-Ju is an absolute master of the backhand banana flick, and heâ€s not afraid to use it every single point.
This is how he achieved all of his success. He showed the world that you can attack every single serve with the backhand flick, regardless of where his opponent served.
Lin isnâ€t afraid to backhand flick, even if you serve short to his forehand.
The other main strength Lin has, apart from his explosive and consistent forehand and backhand loops, is his footwork and agility.
Lin is a very fast player, and he uses that speed to move laterally and in and out of the table to flick every serve and follow up his flick with an explosive loop.
It is very rare to see Lin out of position, and heâ€s almost always on the offense because he takes the initiative straight from the receive.
Lin Yun-Ju came in fourth in the menâ€s singles event in Tokyo 2020, and he won a bronze Olympic medal in the Mixed Doubles event. In 2024, heâ€ll look to add an Olympic Gold medal to his collection, and he has every weapon in his arsenal to make it happen.
Paris 2024 Match Schedule
The schedule of the menâ€s team event is as follows:
The first rounds will be played from Saturday 27th all the way until Wednesday the 31st. This will include all of the rounds before the quarter-finals matches.
The quarter-final matches are to be played on Thursday the 1st, the semi-finals will be played on Friday the 2nd, and the grand final will be played 2 days later on Sunday the 4th.
Menâ€s Singles History
The history of the menâ€s singles event in the Olympics greatly favors Chinese athletes.
28 Olympic medals have been awarded in this event. Of those 28 medals, 16 were awarded to Chinese athletes (57%).
However, Chinese athletes havenâ€t been able to win the event on 3 occasions: Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, and Athens 2004.
In fact, in the Seoul Olympics there were no Chinese athletes even on the podium.
The Seoul Olympics were very special in that two players from the host country competed in the final: Yoo Nam-Kyu and Kim Ki-Taik.
Yoo won and Kim took second place in a very special match. It was the first and only time where two Japanese penhold players clashed in an Olympic final.
The next Olympic final (Barcelona 1992) also featured no Chinese athletes in the final. The final match was played between Jan-Ove Waldner and Jean-Philippe Gatien.
It was this match that solidified Jan-Ove Waldnerâ€s status as an all-time great, and heâ€s widely regarded as the second-best player of all time.
Source: Olympics.com
After that, the Chinese athletes began dominating the menâ€s singles event, and they won 6/7 gold medals from 1996 until 2020.
Liu Guoliang won in ‘96, Kong Linghui won the ‘00 edition, Ma Lin won in ‘08, Zhang Jike won in 2012 and Ma Long won back-to-back Olympic golds in 2016 and 2020.
This is why Ma Long is regarded as the best player of all time. Heâ€s the only person to have won back-to-back Olympic singles events.
In fact, he has stated that he wants a shot at a three-peat, and heâ€s currently ranked #3 in the world. However, we believe itâ€s unlikely that heâ€ll be able to participate in the menâ€s singles event because only 2 Chinese players can play and his results recently have been poorer than Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong.
As for the 2004 edition, Ryu Seung Min won what is by far my favorite Olympic final, and I highly suggest you watch it.
In this match, Ryu beat Wang Hao in an absolute thriller. The two penholders went toe toe-to-toe in an incredible match full of forehand-to-forehand rallies.
Men’s Singles Stats
The Men’s Singles event has been played in all 9 Olympics where Table Tennis has been a sport.
On average, the Men’s Singles receives 67 individual entries. The most entries to a single tournament was the 77 participants at Beijing 2008.
On average, 40 different National Olympic Committees are represented. Brazil 2016 saw the most varied entries with 46 different flags represented.
333 individual players have played in an Olympics Men’s Singles event.
The average match winning margin (in total points) is 12.88.
Player Statistics
Jörgen Persson has played the most Men’s Singles matches of any player, winning 24 of his 35 matches
Ma Long has the longest unbeaten record, winning all 10 of his matches at Beijing & Tokyo
Most Improbable Win – Tibor Klampár bt Chen Longcan 3-2 (21-19, 7-21, 11-21, 21-19, 21-19) despite winning 18 fewer points. Seoul, 1988.
Most Comprehensive Win – Ding Yi bt Alain Choo Choy 3-0 (21-11, 21-3, 21-4) a 45-point winning margin. Seoul, 1988.
Most Points in a Single Match – Jean-Philippe Gatien bt Yu Nam-Gyu 3-2 (22-24, 25-23, 21-19, 17-21, 21-19) playing an incredible 212 points. Barcelona, 1992.
PlayerNOCMatches WonJan-Ove WaldnerSWE25Jörgen PerssonSWE24Jörg RoßkopfGER20Yu Nam-GyuKOR17Zoran PrimoracCRO15Ding YiAUT13Jean-Michel SaiveBEL12Vladimir SamsanovBLR12Andrzej GrubbaPOL12Wang HaoCHN12
Country Records
Chinese Men have won 88.4% (107 out of 121) of their matches against non-Chinese opponents
CountryMatches WonChina107Sweden66Korea62Japan48Germany43Hong Kong, China34Poland31Great Britain30Chinese Taipei (Taiwan)28Austria26
Alvaroâ€s a qualified ITTF Level 1 Coach who’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked within the top 50 in his native Argentina. He loves to compete in provincial tournaments and is always looking for ways to improve. Alvaro made his favorite memories with a racket in hand, and he joined the RacketInsight team to share his passion with other players!
Blade: Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC | Forehand: Butterfly Dignics 09c | Backhand: Butterfly Tenergy 19
Playstyle: The Controller