(by Steve Hopkins)
Shock, and then confusion as Olympic Champions Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng file forms with the ITTF and WTT announcing their retirements. Despite the forms being titled “retirement notification”, it has become clear that much of the move is due to fines being imposed by WTT for failure to participate. For these two players, they played very full schedules leading up to the Olympics and posted amazing performances, but both chose to take a break after the Olympics.
Because each is a part of the WTT tour and has benefitted from the appearance fees, each had signed on to a system that paid participants (in their case, payment was by how far a player advanced, and both players were generally seeded directly into the knock out rounds). The other side of the WTT coin, however, is that players who choose not to compete are penalized – and those fines are higher when one chooses a non-WTT event instead of a WTT event. There do appear to be exceptions for medical issues, though it is unclear whether comments by both Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng that reference mental health would be considered.
It is also unclear whether these players intend to return to competitive play soon – and if a period of retirement will cause the fines to be reduced or removed. What is clear is that Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng are two of the most talented players in the world, and at least in the short term – they will be unable to compete in WTT events.
View Fan Zhendong’s Retirement Notification here.
View WTT’s Response to Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng’s withdrawal announcement here.
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