Wang Hao to make history at the 2011 Liebherr Men’s Table Tennis World Cup
Table Tennis World Cup started in 1980 and is held every year since then but only the Men’s singles were held at the tournament initially as the team events were included in 1990 whereas the Women’s singles were included in 1996.
Chinese table tennis legend Wang Hao has reached the finals of the World Championships more than anyone else in the history of the tournament as he had the chance at the gold medal for five times out of which he succeeded on three occasions in 2007, 2008
and 2010.
International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has invited the defending champion Wang Hao at the much awaited Liebherr Men’s World Cup scheduled from November11-13, 2011 to be held in Paris.
The 27-year-old has the golden opportunity to show his brilliance at the mega event to level Ma Lin’s record who is the only player in the history of the sport to win the event title for a record four times.
ITTF sends invitations to the selected players for the World Cup on the basis of a pre defined criteria. Top players in the different categories of the game received the invitation letter for the world event as the final participants of the contest comprises
of the current World Champion, The 8 top ranked players from the World ranking list, one player form the hosting association, the current holder of the World Cup, one strong player from the six continents (Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa, North America
and Oceania) with two wild card selections.
The rules also implies that if the host association’s player has already received the invitation or if the same player shared the World Cup title or the World Championship the invitation is forwarded to the next top ranked player in the world rankings.
The player’s so far invited at the Liebherr Men’s World Cup are Wang Hao, Zhang Jike, Jun Mizutani, Seiya Kishikawa, Joo Se Hyuk, Oh Sang Eun, Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Ko Lai Chak, Vladimir Samsonov, Chuang Chih-Yuan, Tang Peng and Adrien Mattenet.
Ma Lin is the only player who has won the event four times and that too at only the four appearances at the grand event. Wang Hao of China and Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus both have won the event three times and have a great opportunity to join the league
of the Chinese player Ma Lin.
The Executive committee organised the playing system for the Table Tennis World Cup, for instance the 2009 World Cup was divided in to three stages including the preliminary stage, group stage and the knockout stage.
Players from North America, Oceania, Africa and Latin America fight against each other as the winner progressed to stage 1 of the World Cup. One winner from the four continents then joins the remaining 15 players as the tournament progresses to the next
level.
The players are then divided into four groups who have to compete against each other as the winner and the first runners up qualify for stage 2 which is the knockout round. Four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and ultimately the final decide the winner and
the second position holder of the tournament. Even the third position at the mega event holds much importance for the players as it helps them improve their world rankings hence, a match for third place is held between the losers of the semi-finals.
Vladimir Samsonov and Timo Boll have strong chances of winning the event along with Wang Hao and the young table tennis sensation Zhang Jhike. It will be interesting to see how these players plan their strategies against each other and who manages to hold
his nerves as a fully packed arena at Paris awaits them at the 2011 Table Tennis World Cup event.
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