China’s champion ‘Long Mang’ duo to reunite at doubles-only national championships
Ma Long, Xu Xin are one of 68 men’s and women’s teams playing in special debut event that brings together almost 400 athletes from 27 areas
Veterans Ma Long and Xu Xin will return to action at the stand-alone doubles tournament of the National Table Tennis Championships, which also features star mixed doubles duo Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha as well as long-time partnership Lin Shidong and Kuai Man.
The week-long doubles competition kicked off on Monday in Changsha, Hunan, split into a three-day qualifying stage and a four-day main draw. It marks the first time in the championships’ 74-year history that the doubles events have been separated into a stand-alone leg.
Officials said the Chinese Table Tennis Association decided to hold this stand-alone tournament for the first time against the backdrop of doubles events being added to the Los Angeles Olympics, aligned with preparation needs for the Nagoya Asian Games.
The event has brought together almost 400 athletes from 27 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, playing in 68 men’s and women’s teams. Given the explicit preparation objectives, pairing restrictions between provincial and municipal teams were lifted to allow cross-regional combinations, resulting in several high-profile duos.
The top 16 seeds for the three disciplines were announced on the eve of the tournament.
In the mixed doubles draw of 122 pairs, the star duo of Sun and Wang naturally drew the most attention as the tournament’s top seeds.
