Japan got the worst draw possible in the women singles, but who knows; maybe it's the start of one of them going on a glorious run, after all in the crucible is where diamonds are formed.

Looking forward to the mixed doubles and the men's doubles draws, there may be some surprises in the latter stages. Korea and Sweden are dark horses. Japan will show up as usual

Japan is the only team that can stop China in the Women's doubles, not sure if they can stop two pairs though.

No worries since this is not a full draw, just seeded players.

Kihara probably stands no chance against CM and will likely finish at R16 if she doesn't stumble earlier.

I think Ito has a better chance against CM than she does against SYS and WMY so this is arguably the 2nd best draw she could have hoped for. But that's assuming she makes it past Suthasini + Batra/Diaz, all of whom are no pushovers. IMO Ito is the most volatile of the lot and could finish anywhere between quarters/R16/R32.

Hirano has been in relatively stable form so I'd expect her to make it past Jeon Jihee, although and upset is entirely possible. Then at R16 she'll have another crack at WYD. Even if she makes it past that she'll have to contend with Hayata whom she has been losing to pretty consistently. Most likely another R16 finish for her. 

Don't really expect Nagasaki to beat Hayata and Doo Hoi Kem at R16 is a tough but beatable opponent. Most likely R32 for Nagasaki and another quarters finish for Hayata unless she can finally break her chinese losing streak.

Overall Hirano/Hayata have the best chance of medaling if they play their cards right. 

Ito finishing at her allotted seeding will be a small miracle at this point. She'll need an even bigger one to overcome CM. 

https://www.ittf.com/2023/05/18/ittf-world-championships-finals-2023-singles-seeds-draw-revealed/" rel="nofollow - ITTF World Championships Finals 2023 Draw Results Revealed - International Table Tennis Federation

This is a decent draw for Mima Ito to get back into the Paris 2024 race.  She's favored to make a QF and could possibly even make a SF.  I kind of feel that if Hirano were to pull off another upset and beat WYD again, then that would normally be enough to win the quarter, but in this case she would possibly have to face Hayata.  And the crazy thing is that even if she beat WYD, she wouldn't get Paris points for beating a top 3 CNT player because WYD is WR#4.  Aside from Nagasaki, Hirano has the toughest road.  I was looking for Szocs to pull off another miracle, but it looks like even if that happened, it wouldn't help any of the Japanese women as they are in different quarters.  In fact, poor Bernie is stuck in the quarter that has two CNT players.

I looked back at the draw at the 2021 WTTC, and the draw for the Japanese Women's in this year's WTTC nearly mirrors that of the 2021 WTTC. In both instances, 2 Japanese Women were in CM's quarter and 3 Japanese Women were in WYD's quarter.

2023 Nagasaki got Shibata's 2021 WTTC draw-> face a Japanese player in the R32

2023 Hirano got Hayata's 2021 WTTC draw-> face WYD in the R16

2023 Hayata got Ito's 2021 WTTC draw-> face a Japanese player in the R32 and WYD in the QF

2023 Kihara got Hirano's 2021 WTTC draw-> face CM in the R16

2023 Ito got Ishikawa's 2021 WTTC draw-> face CM in the QF

The Japanese Women can't really complain though since the Japanese Men have it much worse. 2 Japanese men are in LJK's quarter while 3 Japanese Men are in WCQ's sixteenth (R32)!

Interestingly, in this year's WTTC, Togami and Ito also got the same opponents for their first matches as with the 2021 WTTC. Togami's first opponent is Tomas Polansky (CZE) again. Ito, on the other hand, got Zauresh Akasheva again (KAZ) (short pips BH) who happens to be Ito's fan. Maybe Ito will get some https://youtu.be/Wa1zSpGkX-s" rel="nofollow - Kazakhstan chocolate after the match again . :))

She considers SYS, WMY, CM to be at a tier above that of WYD and CXT. She says that compared to the former 3 players, the latter 2 aren't as stable against defense and "special" playing styles. She feels CM stability in the power rallies is the best among Chinese players, so you can only defeat her by breaking through with serve and receive. (which Kato believes was the reason she was able to beat her in the 2019 T2 Diamond Malaysia) 

For Japanese players, she highlights Hirano's improvements especially in defense and thinks that she has been in good form lately. She still thinks that Ito poses the greatest challenge to Chinese players amongst the Japanese players selected for WTTC but is concerned about Ito's current condition. She also mentions Han Ying, CIC, Polcanova, Diaz, Sawettabut, Shin Yubin, Batra and Lily Zhang as players to watch out for. She also said Ni Xialian's playing style may be scary for other Asian Players, but not for Japanese players who are generally adept at playing against this style.

For Women's Doubles, she says there seems to be a slight gap between China and Japan's doubles pairs when compared to the rest of the world. However, she highlights JJH/SYB as a strong and stable pair not from China or Japan. You can read the full articles at the links above to see Kato's full comments for each of the Chinese, Japanese, and Rest of the World players.

He observes that WCQ seems strong against ML, ML seems strong against FZD, and FZD seems strong against WCQ, so he's interested how the draw plays out. He feels ML has proven his strength and mentality in the WTTC and Olympic stage, so he would like to see if FZD can cross the "ML wall" and beat him on a stage bigger than the World Tour. He mentions Moregard, the Lebrun brothers, LYJ, Jorgic, QD, Lim Jong-hoon, Calderano and Kallberg as players to watch out for.

For Japanese players, he has a hunch that Harimoto will do well this WTTC. He also observes that Togami has difficulty against left-handers (Note: he could face WCQ in the R64). Interestingly, he feels that the contenders for the Men's doubles championship will likely be among the seeded players and believes that there will be less upsets in Men's Doubles than Men's Singles. For Mixed Doubles, he favors WCQ/SYS and Harimoto/Hayata to meet in the finals and calls them the two strongest pairs in the WTTC. He feels LSD/KM is the third strongest pair with a decent chance to make the final. He also mentions LJH/SYB and Uda/Kihara as the other noteworthy pairs. You can read the full articles at the links above to see Ueda's full comments for each of the Chinese, Japanese, and Rest of the World players.

Hirano has a tricky first-round opponent in Zeng Jian who just won the SEA games championships after beating Orawan and Suthasini who have been dominating the region in recent years. That same Orawan took two games off Ishikawa at the Olympics and will likely face Kihara in the second round. 

Suh Hyo Won has the potential to upset Doo Hoi Kem again in R32, but that's provided she makes it past Bruna Takahashi and Karoline Mischek/Solomiya Bratekyo. These days it feels like Suh could lose against anybody. 

It's already 2023 and no sign of Yui Hamamoto in Austrian colours anywhere. Did she change her nationality for nothing? Kinda tired of watching Amelie Solja being a sitting duck at the table.

The last game was not hot :))

Not sure that Takahashi can play defenders...In the fist game, she played bad....not even bad, shuh Hyowoon didn't need to do anything.

EDIT: Didn't have this issue today. Maybe it's better on the computer rather than on TV.

YJN has been losing a bit more lately so I thought she might stumble before her allotted seeding position but still didn't think that she would struggle that badly after winning the first two games easily.

Debora won two tight games and managed to level things at 10-10 in the 6th before YJN's experience showed. Terrific player to watch with an extremely effective style but I think opponents can get used to her game over time since she lacks variation and gears.

I didnt watch the match but am extremely familiar with both their games, all I can say is that any such result to me says more about Kallberg than Olah.  But if Olah makes the round of 16 or something, then I may revise that.

Yeah, he injured himself while playing a point winning loop.  He looks more like his brother now lol.

Totally pwnage by Hirano. Well done Miu

Women's doubles round of 32:

Wang/Sung vs Szocs/Polcanova

Aruna has a really strong draw.  Bundesliga guys with Ionescu, Robles and Gauzy.   If he makes this, it will be more impressive than his QF showing in Houston even if it doesn't look like it.

This is a huge win for Mati, he is the current future of Nigerian/African TT though his forehand is much stronger than his backhand (what is new).  The lefty dimension though will give Nigeria balance if we can develop one more star player.

It is interesting to note that Ibrahima pays tribute to Toriola for making his 1st big breakthrough when he played and won an essential match replacing the injured Nigerian  https://olympics.com/en/news/ibrahima-iba-diaw-senegal-table-tennis-star" rel="nofollow - Meet Ibrahima Diaw - could he be Africa's next big table tennis star? (olympics.com) . The ancient who could play anyway gave his shot to the young gun at an important moment, too cool!

Happy for Brian but Hugo remains a head scratcher. 

http://https://youtu.be/muNgwOi7YiU" rel="nofollow - Her voice on the other hand... Hope she doesn't have a flu that could take her out of the tournament

Izaac Quek played amazing against LYJ but the latter's long serve to the backhand was too much in the end. Koen Pang also nearly upset Jang Woojin but fizzled out in the 7th.

Wong Xinru was probably SGP's MVP of the day, probably being the only local-born player in recent history to clear the first round of the world championships in all 3 events. This included a win over http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szj4wxANNxY" rel="nofollow - Ema Labosova who played some dangerous shots againt Mima Ito a hard time in WTTC 2022 as well as a victory over veterans Yu Fu and Shao Jieni in women's doubles.

ML didn't steal, he just kept his mouth shut and let the umpire decide ☺️

That's some pretty shitty sportsmanship from ML tbh. Do you really gotta be dishonest against WR #84 player who you know you'll destroy in the next 4 games anyway? Denied Wong a great "took a game off ML" story. Can't look at him the same after that. 

Hirano is still wiping her nose between games. Is she really down with something?

Kaufmann has some cool tomahawk serves and seems like a player with more potential than Mittelham.

Watch it again. The ball hits the edge and travels another 5 feet past the table. There's absolutely no way that happens on a side ball and everybody in the building knew it. 

There's no arguing this imo. Clear as day. 

I like the fact that someone can see what the umpire saw.  Because those calls are tricky and Ma Long was not really in a position to see it.  But the ball clearly doesn't go down the way it would on a side.

I wouldn't call it clear as day. I'd say 50-50

The camera angle also doesn't clearly make it seen whether or not Eugene hit it inside the table or outside the table. Inside then yes, it is edge, but outside, still 50-50. Ultimately, the umpire decides.

Is it too much to expect some integrity and honesty from the greatest player of all time? For most of us playing casually, we have to keep our own score and call our own opponent's edge balls. Do we really want to make excuses for this "see no evil" approach in this sport? 

Just my opinion, but I'd rather take 100 screaming Harimotos than this sort of behavior. I couldn't see him, or anyone on the Japanese national team for that matter, stooping this low (not making this a nationality thing, it's just I watch a lot of Team Japan). 

Ehh... not buying it for this rally--the one with Pitchford, yes that point was stolen

but this one vs Eugene was 50-50, and, like I said, ultimately the it's the umpires job.

I think you should have a qualm with the umpire, not Ma Long :)

This change started in 2021 due to COVID, with the field limited to 128 singles players and 64 doubles pairs in the individual editions, and 32 teams in the team editions. There are some continental & regional qualifying tournaments.

https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2023_WTTC_Qualification_Pathway_20230117.pdf" rel="nofollow - https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2023_WTTC_Qualification_Pathway_20230117.pdf

https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022_WTTC_Qualification.pdf" rel="nofollow - https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022_WTTC_Qualification.pdf

Okay out of all the statements I've made, that one I admit I might have went a bit too far with. 

The rest I'm sticking with though.

Half the time ML served illegally (covering the ball with his head/shoulder/etc). And you expect him to call an edge? 

90% of the time, all serves are someway illegal.

Hirano has chronic sinus allergy and she always has a plastic bag to put in her many used tissues. If you ever watch her many precious matches she does this all the time. However maybe she is still feeling a bit unwell but regardless she’s winning so far. I’m rooting for her 

Precious matches? Are you a Hirano lover?

Even without injury it wouldnt be a diffrence.

Lol typo! I meant to say, previous! 

I’m just a fan, who also is a girl 

To me it looks like side.

So it’s NOT that obvious.

There's no arguing this imo. Clear as day. ' - turbozed

would not argue with it; its clear as day. 

Its a side ball. The assistant umpire made a good call.

 

Any instances of sportsmanship in the past we've seen where both players correct an umpires mistaken call involve a play that was beyond any doubt. This is not the case here. 

Also notable that the biggest proponent of Ma Long being a dirty cheater in this thread is now crying in the YouTube chat about Franziska benefiting from "affirmative action for white people" since he got to play a relatively easy opponent in the R64 (Xavier Dixon, who won his R128 match thus earning his spot in R64...).

Interesting comment considering that it happened when Ma Long was down game point 12-13 in the first game.