Chinese table tennis fans outraged as Chen Meng, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long dropped from team
National team selectors omit the trio for ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup in Shenzhen, after their withdrawal from world rankings
Chinese table tennis fans reacted angrily on Friday after Olympic champions Fan Zhendong, Chen Meng and Ma Long were all omitted from the national team ahead of next month’s ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup in Shenzhen.
The trio stunned the table tennis world last month when they announced that they were withdrawing from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) world rankings because of rules stating that fines would be imposed on players who did not take part in World Table Tennis (WTT) tournaments.
But after Fan and Chen posted letters titled “player career retirement notification” on social media, Fan had clarified that the move did not indicate retirement from the sport.
If that raised their supporters’ hopes that it was not the end for the trio at elite level, the decision to omit them served as a blow, provoking a wave of criticism. Wang Hao and Ma Lin, the head coaches of the men’s and women’s national teams respectively, bore the brunt.
“Is Fan Zhendong no longer in the national team? Wang Hao, what do you mean?” one Weibo user said. “Have you communicated with him? He was invited [to play in the Asian Cup] but is not allowed to go.”
Fan, Ma and Chen, who have 14 Olympic gold medals between them, were all invited to take part in the annual tournament days before they announced their rankings move in December.
