Continued gains mask growing pains

Withdrawal symptoms

Notably, the back-to-back withdrawals of two Chinese star players due to injuries within 24 hours at the WTT Finals 2025 sparked fan concerns over their demanding schedule.

According to the WTT's 2025 calendar, the annual tournament count exceeded 45. During the Hong Kong stop, Sun had to play five matches within 28 hours, including three matches within a seven-hour span on a single day, with less than 90 minutes of rest between two of them.

"I hope to maintain a positive mindset, take some time to rest, and allow myself to make a good physical and mental recovery," Sun said.

The CTTA issued a statement on its official website on Dec 14 in response to the two players' withdrawals.

It stated that the association would further improve athlete health protection and injury prevention mechanisms and continue supporting athletes' long-term career development.

"The CTTA always puts athletes first," the statement read.

"We have been actively communicating with the ITTF, WTT, and related stakeholders to jointly advance a more scientific and sustainable competition structure."

It also called on the public to "help foster a rational and supportive environment for our athletes".

These concerns over schedule intensity and well-being were not isolated. Facing the WTT's participation mandates and financial penalties for top-ranked players, Olympic champions Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng announced their withdrawal from the ITTF World Rankings at the end of 2024.

The move meant they automatically opted out of WTT and ITTF-sanctioned events that award ranking points, essentially stepping back from the international circuit.

In reaction to player feedback and broader systemic critiques, the WTT introduced a series of reforms last February. Key changes included adjusted mandatory participation rules, permission for athletes to skip two WTT Champions events annually and an increase in prize money.

Paddling overseas

Freed from the shackles of his WTT commitments, reigning men's Olympic singles champion Fan embarked on a notable new chapter in his career by heading to Germany's Bundesliga to ply his trade with club 1. FC Saarbrucken in June.

In Germany, he had to adapt to an unfamiliar environment, manage his own daily life and face a whole host of new opponents and unfamiliar playing styles.

While embracing the move, and all of the new experiences that came with it, Fan had to fight, not always successfully, to reassert his dominance in his new environment.

Fortunately, after a shaky start, he quickly found his feet, but perhaps the competitive challenge of the German league has paid dividends. Fan arrived in China for the 15th National Games in November in fine form.

Representing Shanghai, he defeated world No 1 Wang Chuqin in the semifinals and then world No 2 Lin Shidong in the final, defending the gold he first clinched in 2021.

Competing in the team event as well, Fan maintained a perfect individual record and helped secure a silver medal for Shanghai.

Commenting on Fan's experience, Zhang Jiehai, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences who specializes in German culture and closely follows table tennis, noted: "Fan Zhendong's journey shows that even a world No 1 player with a thoroughly developed technical system can still learn vital lessons and identify unseen gaps in an overseas environment. This suggests that Chinese table tennis does not possess all the answers — the global game is not simply following China's lead. Sustained leadership requires maintaining openness, diversity and a degree of technical unpredictability."

xingwen@chinadaily.com.cn