World Table Tennis hits back in Fan Zhendong, Chen Meng ‘retirement’ controversy

Governing body say nothing new about rules dictating which tournaments players must play, and 2025 regulation changes favour competitors

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Fan Zhendong celebrates winning a point during China’s 2024 Olympic men’s team semi-final victory over France. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 12:09pm, 29 Dec 2024Updated: 4:17pm, 29 Dec 2024

Fan Zhendong and World Table Tennis have clashed over the issue that led the player, and his fellow Chinese Olympic champion Chen Meng, to withdraw from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings on Friday.

Fan and Chen, who both won singles and team gold in Paris this summer, said they were not prepared to accept fines imposed on players for skipping WTT-sanctioned tournaments.

Following a backlash from mainland China supporters of the multiple Olympic gold medal duo, WTT moved to defend themselves against the criticism. They issued a statement declaring that the rules stipulating which tournaments players must attend are nothing new.

More pointedly, they highlighted changes for 2025 that are designed to help leading global tour professionals, and which were implemented following “feedback gathered directly from players”.

Responding to the WTT statement, Fan posted on Weibo: “I am not sure when the content about punishing players who don’t participate first appeared, but I am sure I was never informed by officials before that I would be fined for withdrawing from the competition.”

Fan Zhendong after beating Truls Moregard for Paris Olympic gold. Photo: Xinhua

The WTT also stated the new rules “were designed by table tennis experts”.