It's the end of the year guys, and table tennis world tour will achieve it's climax in Lisbon, Portugal, where the penultimate International Table Tennis Federation World Tour Grand final is currently in progress.
At the time of writing, we are about to see the semi final stage where all available 4 slots were already filled up by Chinese peddlers for men category.
At 1345 Lisbon time, Ma Long will face Zhang Jike while
at 1515 Lisbon time, Fan Zhendong will face Xu Xin.
For women category, from the 4 available slots, 3 are Chinese peddlers with one go to Korean peddler.
That is the depth and magnitude of Chinese strength of Chines table tennis.
I mean, if their coaches ever decide to go back to main land China to attend to something else, they are already guaranteed of a certain Silver medal for woman (worst case scenario) while for men events their coaches are already guaranteed of gold, silver and bronze medals all safe in Chinese team camp.
What will be decided in man events is just a matter of who will get what medals. That is the depth of Chinese table tennis squad.
About 45 minutes from now, Zhang Jike, the current gold Olympic holder of table tennis will face Ma Long, the captain.
My prediction for final is Ma Long vs Xu Xin. This is just prediction. For actual result, please follow it yourself at ittf tv. There will be an online streaming. Just Google ittf tv and make sure you have adobe flash-player already installed on your pc.
My pick for winner is Xu Xin. Again, this is only a prediction. I shall update the actual result later on.
