2021 Chinese Table Tennis Super League (CTTSL) will be held from 3 to 12 October in Weihai, Shandong where 2020 World Cup took place.
Similar to the arrangement of the last season, to reduce risk of contracting Covid 19, 2021 CTTSL schedule is compacted into 10 days and players will be competing in a 'sports bubble' rather than touring around the country. Fortunately, the meet will be broadcast live in various platforms (migu video, zhibo tv, CCTV 5 etc.), so we will get to see all the spectaculars, surprises and sparks. Adding incentives to this season is that a ticket to Boston, the host city of 2021 Worlds, will be handed to top male and female players who have accumulated the most points (in the singles matches) over the 2021 CTTSL season. With fans favourite and talented up-and-comers contributing to this strong competition field, I could hardly find a reason for not watching 2021 CTTSL!
Since 2021 CTTSL will be part of the selection process of 2021 Worlds and 2024 Olympics, it shares the same competition system as the Olympics (1 doubles match followed by 4 singles). The round-robin stage will run from 3 to 9 October with 9 men's teams and 6 women's teams vying for the top 4 spots in the play-off stage.
On the men's side, defending champion Shandong Luneng is almost a replica of Team Beijing (Ma Long, Wang Chuqin, Yan An) from the National Games while Shantou Mingrun has half of the line-up from the National Games champion-winning squad (Fan Zhendong, Lin Gaoyuan). In my opinion, these two teams are strong contenders for making into the play-off. Other than that, do not overlook Shandong Weiqiao which has a strong line-up including Liang Jingkun, Zhou Qihao and Liu Dingshuo (first runner-up at the National Games). The door for the 4th spot is wide open, I do hope Shanghai can redeem themselves from the disappointment at the National Games but other teams could put up a challenge as well.
The women's field is quite one-sided as Shandong Luneng has Chen Meng and Wang Manyu, two Olympic champions, and two solid players Chen Xingtong and Qian Tianyi are on the squad. Other teams will have to go above and beyond in order to challenge for the champion. Shenzhen University also has Sun Yingsha, an Olympic champion on the team and will be quite capable of making into the play-off. While Liu Shiwen will sit out this season's CTTSL hoping to save her best for the 2021 Worlds in November.
Constant updates will be made from time to time. Stay tuned!
Related Links:
2021 CTTSL: Men's Team Results
2021 CTTSL: Women's Team Results
2021 CTTSL Live & Replay: Zhibo TV YouTube channel
2020 CTTSL One-Stop Guide
2021 National Games of China
CTTSL Official Website (Detailed Results)
Roster
Tentative Schedule
Thanks !
ReplyDeleteSo many big events happening over the last two months has not helped me preparing for my final exams :P Thank you for the update.
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