Normal service resumes for China men’s table tennis as Ma Long leads team to world title after a year to forget
Eleven months after a saga that saw three star players punished for their no-show at two tournaments, the mainlanders dominate at the highest level again
China lifted their ninth straight men’s title at the world team table tennis championships in Halmstad, Sweden, but more importantly it proved the most dominant nation in the sport didn’t suffer from the fallout of having their beloved coach, Liu Guoliang, axed from the team.
Last June, Liu was controversially removed as head coach to take up a position as vice-president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, a decision that led to Ma Long, Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin, the three top ranked players in the world, to protest by not showing up for their matches at last year’s China Open in Chengdu and the Australian Open.
The trio had said they were “too heartbroken” to play after Liu, previously coach for more than a decade, was removed in a major restructuring of the team. The players had formed a very close bond with Liu and their “no-show” earned a stinging rebuke from the mainland’s top sports body, the General Administration of Sports of China.
Ma, Fan and Xu Xin were each fined US$20,000 by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) as punishment but the world’s governing body stopped short of suspending the trio.
China’s troubled past seemed to have been forgotten after the mainlanders swept past Germany 3-0 in the men’s final in Halmstad on Sunday, lifting the coveted Swaythling Cup for the 21st time in another show of dominance. It was Liu Guozheng’s first major success as coach as well, proving that all is well with the China team.