China’s Sun and Wang talk of the town as table tennis World Cup descends on Macau
Fans focus their attention on Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin as country’s stars prepare to continue dominance of competition
China’s table tennis stars have descended on Macau for this week’s World Cup, with the country firm favourites to continue their utter dominance of the competition – although all fans can talk about is Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin.
World No 1s Lin Shidong and Sun will lead the charge in the men’s and women’s tournaments, battling for the Evans Cup and Hammarlund Cup, respectively.
Some 96 players – 48 men and 48 women – were split into 16 groups of three during Sunday’s draw at the Galaxy Arena, and with triple champion Ma Long not defending his men’s crown, fan favourite Wang will be among those hoping to replace him.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, are represented by Wong Chun-ting on the men’s side and Doo Hoi-kem and Zhu Chengzhu in the women’s. But with only one player progressing from each group, the trio could struggle to reach the knockout stage.
Wong has been placed alongside China’s Liang Jingkun and Australia’s Nicholas Lum, while Doo would need to take down Japan’s world No 5 Miwa Harimoto. Zhu has been grouped with China’s Kui Man.
In all, China have sent 10 players to the World Cup – five men and five women – but fans have focused their attention on just two, Sun and Wang.