On the evening of September 21, the WTT China Grand Slam announced the full main draw lineup, with Chinese players occupying the top seeds in men's and women's singles and men's doubles.
The WTT China Grand Slam will be played from September 26 to October 6, with the first three days of singles qualifying. As the highest-level competition in the WTT competition system, this competition has 2,000 championship points equivalent to the World Table Tennis Championships and the Olympic Games.
The Chinese team sent all the main players except Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng to participate in the competition, of which three main players of the men's team entered the top five seeds in the men's singles. World No. 1 Wang Chuqin is the top seed, No. 4 Liang Jingkun and No. 6 Ma Long are the No. 3 and No. 5 seeds, while the No. 2 and No. 4 seeds are occupied by Brazil's Hugo and France's Rookie Lebrun Jr. respectively. In addition, Lin Gaoyuan, Lin Shidong, Xiang Peng, Zhou Qihao, Xu Yingbin, and Yuan Licen will also appear in the men's singles main draw.
In women's singles, world No. 1 Sun Yingsha is the top seed, the other three national table tennis players Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi and Chen Xing are the No. 2 to No. 4 seeds, and Korea's Shin Yubin is the No. 5 seed. Qian Tianyi, Kuo Man, Shi Xunyao, He Zhuojia, Qin Yuxuan, and Zong Geman also qualified for the main competition.
It is worth mentioning that the men's and women's singles lists announced this time have 56 people each, in addition to eight men's and women's seats will be generated through the qualifying round. Chen Yuanyu, Huang Youzheng, Zeng Beixun, Xue Fei, Zhou Kai and Xu Haidong of the Chinese men's team and Chen Yi, Li Yake, Xu Yi, Yang Yiyun, Liu Weishan and Wang Xiaotong of the women's team will participate in the qualifying round.
In the doubles event, the Chinese team did not field the world's highest-ranked pair. Among them, the men's doubles world No. 8 "new and old pair" Lin Gaoyuan/Lin Shidong entered the main draw with a wild card and became the top seed, Wang Chuqin/Liang Jingkun are the No. 4 seeds, Yuan Licen/Xiang Peng, Huang Youzheng/Xu Yingbin, Zhou Qihao/Chen Yuanyu will also participate with wild cards. Women's Doubles Sun Yingsha/Wang Yidi and Kuo Man/Wang Manyu are seeded No. 2 and No. 4 respectively, while Chen Xingtong/Qian Tianyi, Chen Yi/Xu Yi and Zong Geman/Qin Yuxuan are also shortlisted.
In the Mixed Doubles, world No. 5 Kuo Man/Lin Shidong will compete as the No. 4 seeds, while Lin Gaoyuan/Wang Yidi, Xue Fei/Qian Tianyi, Xiang Peng/Liu Weishan, and Yuan Licen/Shi Xunyao will also be among the finalists.
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Photo courtesy of Xinhua News Agency
Source: Beijing Daily Sports
Reporter: Wang Xiaoxiao