by Ian Marshall, Editor

The quality of the men’s singles entry is mind blowing, consider the current men’s world ranking for May and the top 34 names all appear; in fact of the top 50 there are only four absentees, those being Korea Republic’s Jeong Sangeun, Brazil’s Gustavo Tsuboi, India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta and the host nation’s Liu Dingshuo.

Seeding is based on the world rankings for April, Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin and Lin Gaoyuan occupy the top three seeded places, add the names of Ma Long, the no.11 seed and Liang Jingkun, the no.9 seed, the elite of China is present; only two of those may play in the men’s singles event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Equally, Lim Jonghoon did not make the Korea Republic selection for the recent Liebherr 2019 World Championships; he is the leading name on duty in the qualification tournament.

It’s tough, in order to be seeded and gain a direct entry to the main draw, a player must me a member of the 100 club; that is the number of ITTF World Tour men’s singles titles shared by the top 16 names; in fact it is shared by the top 14 names, England’s Liam Pitchford and Sweden’s Mattias Falck, the players who complete the elite list have no such accolade in their curriculum vitae.

Now for those who must qualify, the total number of titles shared would be most acceptable for the majority of open international tournaments; overall 53 ITTF World Tour men’s singles titles have been won by those who must qualify.

An overall sum of 153 players and you can add even more; since January 2017 when the Challenge Series became separate to the ITTF World Tour, a total of 18 men’s singles titles have been secured by players on Shenzhen duty.

Thus in the men’s singles event 45 players share a total of 171 titles, more than the total entry of 153 players!

Furthermore, a men’s singles winner from ever year of the ITTF World Tour is represented, mainly thanks to Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus  and Germany’s Timo Boll, bothplay in Shenzhen.