On the afternoon of 18 March, the Chinese table tennis team officially announced the list of athletes who will participate in the 2025 Macau World Cup singles tournament. Of the eleven athletes who originally qualified, Fan Zhendong gave up playing, and the remaining ten players were shortlisted as follows –
Men’s Singles: Lin Sidong, Wang Chuqin, Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan and Huang Youzheng;
Women’s Singles: Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi, Chen Xingtong and Kuai Man.
Places in this year’s World Cup come from a number of sources, with the latest World Series singles champions and the World Youth U19 (under-19 group) singles champions getting a direct entry, including singles gold medallists Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha from the 2023 World Series in Durban, as well as 2024 World Youth U19 men’s singles champion Huang Youzheng (the women’s champion is Germany’s Kaufmann).
In addition, the top four singles athletes from the 2025 Asian Cup also met the requirements for selection, including Wang Chuqin, Liang Jingkun, Lin Shidong, Wang Manyu, Sun Yingsha, Kuai Man, and Chen Xingtong, with Sun Yingsha vacating a spot that was won by Wang Yidi because of her World Singles Championships title, and Lin Gaoyuan making the cut by virtue of his World Ranking, giving the Chinese team eleven slots in total.
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However, as previously stated, Fan Zhendong will not be competing in this World Cup tournament, to which Chinese table tennis men’s team head coach Wang Hao described:
‘The team leader and I have been in contact with Fan Zhendong, concerned about his situation and status. He himself decided not to compete due to his recent personal situation, and the team respects his decision.’
Fan Zhendong, who was a four-time World Cup singles champion and tied for the top spot in the men’s game with Ma Lin, has recently been absent from international competition for an extended period of time, as well as withdrawn from the world rankings, so dropping out of the World Cup was expected by many fans.
In addition to Fan Zhendong, the Chinese table tennis team there are two not retired Olympic singles champion not to participate in this World Cup, respectively, is Ma Long, Chen Meng, which Ma Long is also the last World Cup singles gold medallist, but due to the two do not meet this year’s ITTF selection criteria, so did not obtain qualification (Note: Ma Long, Chen Meng, also with the same as the Chinese table tennis team as long ago withdrew from the world rankings).
Although the three big names are absent, but this year’s Chinese table tennis team to play in the World Cup athletes lineup is still very strong, and here also look forward to everyone can achieve good results in Macao, and strive to hold the external position, the impact of the singles world championship title.
