Mumbai: These are considerably turbulent instances in world desk tennis. Three of the game’s most iconic figures and prime Chinese language gamers — 2024 Paris Olympics singles champions Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng together with the legendary Ma Lengthy — have pulled out of the Worldwide Desk Tennis Federation (ITTF) world rankings and World Desk Tennis (WTT) tour, largely over a dispute concerning fines for non-participation in tournaments.
2024 Paris Olympics singles champions Fan Zhendong has pulled out of the Worldwide Desk Tennis Federation (ITTF) world rankings and World Desk Tennis (WTT) tour (WTT / X)
These are not any extraordinary gamers. Fan, 27, is a multiple-time Olympic and Worlds gold medallist and former world No.1. So is Chen, who received back-to-back Olympic singles titles in Tokyo and Paris. Ma Lengthy, a six-time Olympic champion, is taken into account the best to have performed the game.
Their withdrawal has shaken the TT world with a couple of different gamers like France’s Simon Gauzy and Nigerian Aruna Quadri additionally voicing comparable issues. Pressured to behave, ITTF on Friday arrange a job drive “to gather feedback from players and review existing regulations”. The panel contains India’s Sharath Kamal, who additionally co-chairs the ITTF Athletes Fee.
“It’s not a good look for the sport,” he advised HT. “We had a fantastic Olympics in Paris, where TT was a huge success as per the IOC. There was more money coming in. The sport was in the limelight. From that viewpoint, it’s not come at the best time. It’s also a wake-up call.”
The crux of the difficulty stems from the obligatory tournaments that prime gamers are required to play (10 on the WTT tour), and the fines imposed in the event that they don’t. The WTT — fashioned by ITTF to run business tournaments — in its 2025 laws has elevated the general prize cash pool for gamers, but additionally launched larger fines for these “who choose to participate in non-WTT events taking place during WTT events they have withdrawn from”. These sanctions, it’s learnt, can go as excessive as $5,000, though WTT maintains that imposing penalties will not be new.
In his submit on Weibo, Fan stated he couldn’t afford to pay such fines, whereas Chen acknowledged that her physique couldn’t face up to the variety of tournaments. Loads of prime paddlers from China, the TT powerhouse, compete solely in choose tournaments on the WTT tour. Different world’s prime paddlers additionally play membership TT in Europe, the place they’ve correct contracts.
“The main issue is mandatory tournaments. Fines are imposed because of that,” Sharath stated. “There’s a new structure for tournaments, which is offering higher prize money. But the thing is they want top players to keep playing. Players say they have no contract with WTT. The WTT in turn is like if we are not able to make sure that top players are competing, it is tough to attract sponsors. Both sides will have to understand each other’s viewpoint.”
Sharath cited the instance of the WTT Star Contender Goa, the place there was significantly better sponsor curiosity main into the 2023 version, for which Ma Lengthy and Fan had registered, in comparison with final 12 months. India’s prime paddler additionally stated the Covid-19 pandemic and the struggle in Europe had disrupted the calendar resulting from which fewer WTT top-tier occasions just like the Grand Smash had been held till this 12 months. It compelled prime stars to additionally flip up for lower-tier occasions to keep up rankings. Burnout was due to this fact a recurring theme amongst gamers.
“There were not enough higher-tier tournaments. Stronger players came to weaker tournaments; they did not get enough prize money, and weaker players did not get enough points. Those disparities were too much. Hopefully it will ease out now,” Sharath stated.
A part of the ITTF Athletes Fee since 2022, the 42-year-old stated he had been elevating sure points with WTT for the final couple of years, together with the announcement of a full calendar prematurely. “It’s getting better, but it’s still a struggle,” Sharath stated. “Players are going helter-skelter, and it is something they (WTT) also know.”
As a part of the ITTF job drive, Sharath seeks to achieve out to prime gamers, together with Fan, this month to listen to their views and take that to the our bodies to try to work out a balancing act.
“It’s a bit of a grave situation. It’s three players now; it could be more going ahead because a lot them are complaining,” Sharath stated. “It is important to restore some peace.”