Ma Long, Xu Xin, and Liu Shiwen – all three veterans advance past the first round! How should we evaluate their performance like this?

Thread Content

After the first two competition days, Ma Long, Xu Xin, and Liu Shiwen defeated their respective opponents – Liang Jingkun, Zhao Zihao, and Wang Yidi – in the men’s and women’s singles events, thus making it to the quarterfinals of the WTT Macau Stars Tournament in those categories. As everyone can see, these three veteran players, despite not having undergone systematic training for a long time and not participating in any individual events at the World Table Tennis Championships or the WTT World Cup, still managed to demonstrate impressive skills and performance once they returned to the competition, thus proving their value to the Chinese national table tennis team. Their success in overcoming these challenges also proves, to some extent, that certain middle-aged players in the Chinese table tennis team still lack the necessary skill level to compete convincingly and win medals on the world stage.