Wang Yidi still has a chance to qualify for the 2025 Table Tennis World Cup, and fans must not be led to the rhythm

In a match in the second round of the women's group stage of the 2025 Macau Table Tennis World Cup on the 15th, national table tennis player Wang Yidi lost to French player Yuan Jianan 1-3, with a score of 11-2, 8-11, 5-11, 8-11 in four games, and Wang Yidi will face Shao Jieni in the third round. After the game, many media commented that Wang Yidi lost his debut in this World Cup and missed the second stage of the knockout round in advance.

National table tennis general Wang Yidi

This statement is obviously a misunderstanding of the interpretation of the rules of this World Cup, and even believes that even if Wang Yidi defeats Shao Jieni 4:0 in the final round of the group stage, he can only get 5 games, but he is behind Yuan Jiannan in the relationship between victory and defeat. In order to understand the answer to this question, we must first talk about the rules of the group stage of this World Cup.

There are two events in the men's singles and women's singles events, and the format has been reformed to ensure that every match and every point counts. According to the ITTF's official website, fans around the world are eager to see how their favorite players will go to glory, and the tournament's unique format aims to combine seeding, excitement and showcasing the skills of the world's top players. It is reported that this World Cup is divided into two stages: the group stage and the knockout stage, and each stage adopts a different format. In the group stage, players will be divided into 16 groups of 3 players in each group to play a single round-robin, with the first place in each group advancing to the second stage. According to the competition system, each game at this stage adopts a four-game system, that is, each game must play four rounds, which means that each game will have one of the three score results of 4-0, 3-1 or 2-2, and players can only take the initiative to qualify in their own hands if they get as many games and goals as possible.

When the ITTF designed this rule, the main purpose was to fill the suspense of the group stage, and in addition to not allowing any loss in every game, but also to fight for every game and every point. Its group stage ranking does not look at the relationship between wins and losses first, because it has been said that if each group stage is played in 4 games, there will be one of the three score results of 4-0, 3-1 or 2-2. The purpose is to require players to win more games, win more points, if you win more games, then directly 3 games and 2 wins will be over, no need to play 4 rounds.

According to the design of the International Table Tennis Federation, everyone plays two games in the group stage, first look at the win-loss ratio of your game, if the win-loss ratio of the game is the same, and then look at the win-loss ratio of your score - In a system where final ranking can come down to the ratio of wins to losses in games and then points, every point counts! The English is excerpted from the description of the rules of the World Cup on the ITTF official website.

The qualifying situation of Wang Yidi's group is currently that Yuan Jianan, who has played 2 games, has a win-loss ratio (number of wins/losses) of 5/3 = 1.6666, Shao Jieni is 2/2 = 1, and Wang Yidi is 1/3 = 0.3333, and is currently Yuan Jianan's temporary group leader. If Wang Yidi can win 4:0 against Shao Jieni in the last game, then the win-loss ratio of her game will also come to 5/3=1.6666.

In the case of the same win-loss ratio of the game, according to the rules announced by the International Table Tennis Federation, that is, look at the win-loss ratio of the score, that is, the total score/total negative score of the two games, whoever has the highest win-loss ratio will be the group leader and advance to the second stage of the knockout round. Therefore, Wang Yidi must first ensure that he wins four games in a straight game, otherwise even if he wins 3:1, it will be in vain, and there is no hope of catching up with Yuan Jiannan in terms of the win-loss ratio of the game. If Shao Jieni is swept 4:0, Wang Yidi will also let Shao Jieni score as few points as possible in each game, such as winning 11:0 is the best, so it is very beneficial to Wang Yidi when calculating the win-loss ratio of the score.

To sum up, judging from the design of the rules of the International Table Tennis Federation, Wang Yidi is not out of the game, and the opportunity is still in his hands. Secondly, the ITTF rules are very professionally designed, because in table tennis competitions, especially in group round-robins, the win-loss ratio of the game and the win-loss ratio of the score are commonly used calculation methods.

In addition, Chinese Taipei's first brother Lin Yunru won the first match of the men's singles group stage of the 2025 Macau World Cup Table Tennis Tournament on the 15th, defeating Macau teenager Chen Zixian in four straight games, and will face off with German veteran Ocharov on the 16th, striving for the first place in the group and the ticket to the top 16. Coincidentally, Ocharov also finished Chen Zixian 4:0 in the first game, and lost 18 points with Lin Yunru, and today's showdown will be a direct PK.

Lin Yunru's coach Wang Yize said that in fact, the World Cup system in the past two years has been full of good, and 1 point cannot be played randomly, which also increases the suspense and watchability of the game. However, this kind of competition system also invisibly causes pressure on the players who play later, for example, Ocharov won the first game in four straight games, and Lin Yunru faced the pressure of not losing 1 game against Chen Zixian on the 15th, but fortunately, Lin Yunru played normally and adjusted quickly in the game.

Although he will stage a brutal showdown with his friend Ocharov on the 16th, Wang Yize said, "The two sides will still go all out and leave no regrets, and the goal is to grab 3 games first." ”