Since the Asian Games is around the corner, hosted by a nation at the centre of table tennis’ power structure, let’s have a quick look at the ferocious force that looms: the Asian Games hasn’t had a non-Chinese singles male champion — or even a finalist — in two decades, a non-Chinese singles female winner in more than two decades, a non-Chinese gold-medal winning men’s team in nearly three decades.
In the context of Indian table tennis that broke the Asian Games medal barrier in 2018 Jakarta, the cold stats are a numbing reminder of the task at hand in Hangzhou as well as the hosts’ hegemony.
One which, in a larger global context, however, has witnessed some cracks of late.
At the 2019 and 2021 World Table Tennis Championships, two silver medallists disrupted the Chinese one-two finish of the past seven editions: Sweden’s Mattias Falck (lost to Ma Long in 2019) and Truls Moregardh (lost to Fan Zhendong in 2021). In men’s doubles, four of the six pairs that competed in the finals of the last three editions have been non-Chinese, including 2021 winners Falck and Kristian Karlsson of Sweden and twice runners-up Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon of Korea.
That’s not to say the Chinese table tennis wall, standing tall for decades together, is no longer sturdy; just that it doesn’t feel quite as unshakeable to the challengers now.
“Things are a lot different now. You can see the results; they are really not beating anyone easily,” Nigerian world No. 17 Quadri Aruna said in Pune, where he is competing in the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT).
“I think all players around the world feel they are closer to beating the Chinese players now,” Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko, ranked 64, said. “The last two Worlds have shown to the other people that it’s possible to beat them and fight against them. All around the world, players are getting more used to China and gaining confidence.”
Play more, believe more
A big reason behind that is the rebranded World Table Tennis (WTT) tour structure. The WTT Series holds events of different categories (Contender, Star Contender, etc) all round the year with ranking points at stake, which, in turn, determine entries at bigger meets. It compels players, including those from China, to turn up for as many of them. For instance, men’s world No. 1 Zhendong and women’s world No. 4 Wang Yidi made the trip to India, among a few other Chinese, for the Star Contender Goa in February.
“Before, probably they (Chinese players) would come for tournaments once in three months, and you can only see them there,” Aruna said. “Now, everyone has to play if you don’t want to drop in the rankings. So they come to play more and more. If you see them week in week out, you can know some things about them and how they play. And the more you play, the more you believe.”
And more come the chances of beating them once in a while, especially the younger Chinese players. At the WTT Champions Macao in April, 14th-ranked Alexis Lebrun, the fast-rising 19-year-old from France, defeated Zhendong 3-2 in the quarter-finals. Closer home, India’s Manika Batra went past China’s current No. 3 Chen Xingtong at last year’s Asian Cup in Bangkok.
“Last year, I won against 4-5 Chinese players,” said Aruna, who beat sixth-ranked Liang Jingkun in the 2021 WTT Cup Finals Singapore. “Any time any player wins against them, it’s a kind of confidence booster for everyone in the world. Probably we will lose six times (against a particular Chinese player), but in that, three times it might be close and somehow one day you might be able to win too.”
Women still largely unchallenged
The little dents to the Chinese stranglehold in the men’s game hasn’t yet crossed over to the women, though. Four of the top six in the men’s singles world rankings are from China. Among the women, all six of them are Chinese. No woman from any other country has contested in a World Championships singles final since 1995.
“For now, at least, the movement with the Chinese and Europeans is mostly in the men’s side,” said Lily Zhang, the world No. 28 American who was born in California to Chinese parents. “The women’s game is still a little bit more China and Asia dominant, where China and Japan are still up there.
“It can be down to a lot of factors,” Zhang, playing for U Mumba in UTT, added. “Maybe because the men have a lot more training centres and options outside Asia. Just taking Europe as an example, there are a lot more training centres for men than for women.”
Peek into training in China
Gerassimenko spent a year training in China at age 13 at an academy-school in Beijing. The schedule, he recalled, was “really tough”: wake up at 5.30am, school, training, lunch, rest, training, dinner, training.
“They had no rule that kids have to be in school for 5-6 hours, like we do,” the player from Kazakh said. “They spend more time in the hall, for their skills, their preparation for tournaments. They have two-three coaches overseeing you all the time. That includes physios, physical coach, mental coach, specialised chefs. It’s a big system. And it’s working. They have everything for a professional table tennis player to grow up and be successful.”
Which is why he brings out a note of caution with his “we are getting closer to the Chinese” assessment. “Chinese table tennis never stands in the same position. They are also learning a lot, they are studying, they are looking for ways to get better.”
For now, though, the dragon isn’t completely sweeping everything that comes along its way in the world of table tennis. “Yes, the dominance is still there,” Aruna said. “But things are much closer now. If they really slip, they know they can lose.”
