China protests over damaged racket, ITTF pledges to investigate

DOHA - The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has pledged to investigate into a "racket incident" at the World Table Tennis Championships after China lodged a formal complaint.

"We will thoroughly investigate into this matter and publish a report when the probe is concluded," said an ITTF official who asked not to be named.

Chinese player Wang Chuqin had to change his racket after his equipment was allegedly mishandled and went on to win a mixed doubles second round game with Sun Yingsha here on Monday afternoon.

Minutes before the Chinese duo took on Brazil's of Hugo Calderano and Bruna Takahashi, Wang found part of the rubber had come off his blade, and China coach Xiao Zhan questioned the umpire if anyone had mishandled Wang's racket. The umpire answered that no one had intentionally torn the rubber and allowed Wang to use his backup racket.

Wang complained in a Migu TV interview that something bad always happened to him in major international events including the Paris Olympics, where his racket was accidentally broken by photographers rushing to capture the moment after Wang and Sun won Olympic gold.

According to an ITTF statement, a special meeting was held between the ITTF and the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) Monday night, attended by CTTA president Wang Liqin, CTTA secretary general He Xiao, the ITTF competition team, the referee team, and the chief of the racket inspection team.

Wang Liqin protested and appealed regarding the damaged racket, requested surveillance footage to be reviewed, and demanded an investigation into the cause of the incident. To prevent similar incidents, CTTA proposed three suggestions, to which the ITTF responded individually.

- CTTA hopes that following this incident, staff will accompany the racket inspection process throughout to ensure no unauthorized personnel can handle the inspected rackets.

The ITTF stated that according to the event rules, each team is allowed to have one staff member accompany the process.

- CTTA wishes for larger and safer racket inspection containers for future events.

The ITTF mentioned that after the incident, they promptly requested the organizing committee to provide A4-sized envelopes and instructed all referees to handle rackets carefully during their work. They also emphasized that the operation procedures of the racket inspection team were correct.

- CTTA requested the entire racket inspection process to be recorded.

The ITTF stated that recording the entire process is temporarily unfeasible at this championships. They will gradually implement this in future matches.