OOAK Table Tennis Forum

This comment is about possible change to the format of the World Teams Championships

1. Semi finals & finals ties: Each Match should be best of 7 games instead of 5. There is time constraint to run all ties in earlier round robin ties in groups to 7 games but at least semi finals & finals can be best of 7 games
2. Add two doubles at least after quarter finals and make it best of 7 matches instead of best of 5 matches . China is nearly unbeatable in a best of 5 matches only tie, all singles. Anything can happen in doubles . Even if not, at least there is more drama

What do you think ?

Best team / players will win whatever the format - given they put the effort in to the matches and prepare properly.

This smacks more of trying to appease a TV audience and to a lesser degree people paying to watch. More matches, more time on air (TV), greater exposure, happier sponsors, more money.

I know when our league hosted international matches one of the most frustrating things was when people had travelled a long way to watch the matches, or even simply got really excited to see international play, and then as soon as one of the teams got to 3, the whole event was over. Players don't want to play more than they have to (more chance of fatigue and injury and potential ranking point losses, plus the logistitcs of travel and accommodation etc). However, if this is to be a spectator sport (and to be honest I feel table tennis is a "players sport" rather than a viewing sport for a variety of reasons), you've got to give value for money.

One solution may be to do away with giving both losing semifinalists a bronze medal and instead award the bronze on which team performed the best in their semifinal defeat. That would make every match count in the semifinals.

Regarding doubles. In my experience players play doubles to get used to the venue, or to try and recoup some money back that they've had to pay for entering events, accommodation and travel, or simply because they are "there" so it fills the time. Look at the recent Manchester WTT Feeder event. Only 7 mens doubles pairings entered the competition and four of them were English and were all paired in the bottom half of the draw. This "luck of the draw" guaranteed at least a silver and kept some "home" interest in the events later stages.

Doubles is a great part of the game. I know from coaching kids, at first when they are required to play it, they don't usually want to (on a separate note I find table tennis to be a very selfish sport, very much inward looking as in what's in it for me and a lot less emphasis on "us" and what can I do for you). Then once they start, they love it. Doubles doesn't get the credit it deserves so I'm all for adding another doubles match - as long as it's not simply two singles players dumped together, but rather the best "doubles" players playing. A good doubles pair who work as a team will always beat two great individuals who don't work as a team. In that respect doubles becomes a specialist event as it takes time and commitment to develop that team ethic and understanding of doubles. Do even professional "individual" players have that time or desire or financial backing to do that? It's a similar story in tennis.

So to simply answer your post subject title - no I don't think it's been introduced to reduce the probability of a Chinese win and if it did have that effect, I'm sure it would only be short term as China has the structure, resources and talent base to quickly adjust and rectify that by training up excellent doubles pairings.

I like the idea of both semifinal losing teams having to play a match for third place. Talk about intense...winner goes home with a medal, loser goes home with nothing. I like it.

I am also a big fan of doubles, it would be a great addition to have doubles play a part. In the Bundesliga the doubles match comes at the end, only if it is 2-2. I'd almost like to see the doubles match come third in any "best of 5" format, so you always have a doubles match. You could do something like:

A vs Z
B vs Y
Doubles
A vs Y
B vs Z

Doubles could be two players who are not playing singles.

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China invests the most money in table tennis, so they'll always be the best, no matter what. All rule changes don't make a dent into the Chinese TT dominance, or even better they benefit the Chinese TT dominance. That might even be the purpose.

If other countries want to compete, more investments are needed. But that's not going to happen.

The rest is utter ** (something will a bull and droppings) and only serves to make the money and power carrousel go around and around.

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