I rarely follow every match of the A-League because there are no live streaming for this competition. While the competition probably isn't going to be as exciting as the Chinese Super League, it's going to be interesting as many future hopefuls gain their experiences and polish their techniques here and become big names a few years later.
The Chinese Super League (CTTSL) is well recognized as the strongest of all domestic table tennis leagues. As most top Chinese table tennis athletes and some world-class non-Chinese athletes take part in the 3-month competition. While Chinese A-League (Division 1) is a lower division of the league. Some young athletes used to compete in both Chinese A-League (Division 1) and the Chinese Super League, like Song Xu and Zhao Zhaoyan from Team PLA won the men's team champion at 2016 CTTSL as well as a third place in men's team at the 2016 Chinese A-League (Division 1). However athletes can only compete in either 1 division in 2017, meaning that we may not see athletes who competed in the Chinese A-League in the upcoming 2017 CTTSL.
As you may observe I mentioned 'Division 1' in the paragraph above which entails there are many divisions in the Chinese table tennis league. Indeed, there are many table tennis league for the large table tennis population in China. Ready for a brief introduction of the Chinese table tennis league?
The highest level of the league is the Chinese Super League where you can expect thrilling contest among the 'Big 4' of the team and unheard underdogs who manage to sneak a point or two from the most celebrated athletes. Following the Chinese Super League, there are Chinese A-League, B-League, C-League and D-League in Division 1. In these competitions you may see young athletes, mostly provincial team members or national B team members, and a few veterans who are not quite up to the skill level of CTTSL competing for prize money, gaining experiences and making their names out there. Following those leagues are Chinese A-League (Division 2) and Chinese B-League (Division 2). Among which, the Chinese B-League (Division 2) is open to amateur table tennis players.
Back to the 2017 Chinese A-League (Division 1). The first leg of the 2017 Chinese A-League (Division 1) took place on 6-10 May in Bengbu Prefecture, Anhui and the second leg took place on 24-29 September in Chongching. The main event of the first leg are the men's and women's team competitions while there are team events and the singles events in the second leg. There are 3-5 players on each team and non-Chinese athletes can also join the League. After rounds of robin-round and knockout stage, Xu Haidong, Xi Sheng and Song Xu placed first, second and third respectively in the men's singles. Kim Song I (DPRK) and Liu Weishan ended up first and second in the women's singles. The men's team champion and women's team champion went to Team Shanghai and Zhejiang College of Sports respectively.
There are definitely non-Chinese standouts in the field. Apart from Kim Song I (DPRK) winning the women's singles title, Ito Mima (JPN) who competed in the team competition only representing Team Liaoning has a 14-match winning streak in the second leg of the competition.
Despite the Chinese A-League (Division 1) has come to an end, the full results for the 2nd leg of the competition is yet to be announced by CTTA while you can find the results for the 1st leg here. You can find the seeding list for the singles events here and the final entries of the competition here. Last but not least, follow the blog as we will keep you updated on the news of CTTSL.
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