China serves up rousing restart

Domestic and overseas paddlers back on the main stage after lengthy hiatus

International table tennis enjoyed a rousing return to action in Weihai, Shandong province, on Sunday.

After an eight-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 crisis, the sport's elite professional circuit is back with three major tournaments in China, all involving overseas athletes in bio-secure bubbles, thanks to a joint effort between the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) and the sport's global governing body, the ITTF.

"I feel extremely excited today to finally get the action resumed after waiting for eight months," ITTF CEO Steve Dainton said in Chinese at the first of the restart events, the Women's World Cup, on Sunday.

"I am way too happy that I almost shed tears after watching the first point played in the opening match.

"We owe many thanks to the CTTA, Chinese authorities and local organizers. It's a proud moment for table tennis as we've managed to bring back international events in this challenging time. Very few sports have done that."

The women's tournament features 21 players from 15 countries and regions, including the host's world No 1 Chen Meng, Japanese prodigy Mima Ito and Chinese-American paddler Lily Zhang.

The action started with a preliminary group stage before progressing to a knockout phase at Weihai's Nanhai Olympic Sports Center.

All overseas players had to pass COVID-19 tests before leaving for and upon arrival in China, and were also required to complete a 14-day quarantine before the opening ceremony. Throughout the tournament, players can only travel between the arena and a designated hotel under closed-loop management.

The Men's World Cup (Nov 13-15), also in Weihai, and the ITTF Finals (Nov 19-22) in Zhengzhou, Henan province, will follow. Both those tournaments will also implement the same virus protocols being observed this week.

An exhibition event in Macao (Nov 25-29) will showcase the new World Table Tennis circuit, a rebranded, glitzier version of the current tour which will be launched next year.

The ITTF World Cup makes table tennis the first Olympic sport to accept overseas participants in China since the country's top sports governing body issued a guideline in early July urging organizers to avoid hosting international tournaments to curb imported positive COVID-19 cases.

The Weihai Cup is the first ITTF World Tour event since the pandemic forced the circuit to be suspended after the Qatar Open, which concluded on March 8.

CTTA president Liu Guoliang hailed the return of the tour as "a first its kind" amid the pandemic.

"It not only thrills table tennis fans around the world, but also provides an opportunity to show the results of China's epidemic prevention and control to the world," Liu, one of the sport's most decorated legends, said in a speech during the World Cup opening ceremony.

"At the same time, it also helps explore and test possibilities for China's sports industry to further resume while hosting more international competitions."

The return of the international circuit has served up a timely tuneup for the world's best to prepare for next year's postponed Tokyo Olympics.

"I am really looking forward to playing more matches every day at the moment," China's top-seeded Chen said after beating Romania's Bernadette Szocs 4-0 in just 26 minutes in the last 16 on Monday.

Although managing to stay sharp training with the national team behind closed doors, Chen said there was no substitute for real competition in the buildup to the Olympics.

One of Chen's biggest rivals, Japanese star Ito, concurred, saying: "I am really happy to be able to return to international competition before the end of the year. Hopefully, we will have more tournaments to play later."

The 20-year-old, who is one of the host's biggest gold-medal hopes at next year's Tokyo Games, said watching Chinese cartoons has made bubble life a lot easier.

"It's really fun and watching them helps me kill time as I won't get bored staying indoors all the time," said Ito.

Players can rest assured that hygiene is of the highest order, too－four disinfection robots, which were used in Wuhan during the peak of the epidemic, are sterilizing the venue after each session of play.