The national table tennis team performed well on the stage of the Nagoya Women's Finals, not only winning the women's singles semifinals, but also winning the doubles championship, which was eye-catching.
This result is impressive, and the national table tennis has achieved the best result within the specified range in the year-end event where the world's top athletes gather.
WTT's biggest tournament is coming to an end, with a staggering prize fund of more than $340,000 for the finals, and a whopping $40,000 for the women's singles champion, equivalent to RMB 2850,000 yuan.
This sporting event not only showcases the skills of top players, but also a shining display of fighting spirit.
The players of the national table tennis have received a total of nearly 300,000 US dollars in prize money in these four games, which can be said to be a very considerable income for the relatively unpopular sport of table tennis.
It seems that the gap is quite large, and even the prize money for the champion of the Taiyuan Regular Challenge is only 5,000 US dollars, compared to it.
Sun Yingsha stood out among the many athletes and became a high-profile figure in Nagoya, winning the finals for the third year in a row, behind Chen Meng's four consecutive titles.
Not only is she the most profitable athlete in this tournament, but she has also become a much-loved person on the field with a good income.
Sun Yingsha won the Women's Singles at the WTT Finals with a whopping $40,000 and an additional $4,000 in Women's Doubles, for a total of $44,000, or 3130,000 RMB.
Wang Yidi followed closely behind, earning her $33,000 in prize money for her Women's Singles runner-up title.
Combined with the additional $2,000 in prize money from the Women's Doubles semi-finals, the total is $35,000 and the total income is 2490,000 yuan.
In light of Wang's failed performance in the Eintracht Frankfurt Championship, the prize money she received was lucrative and remarkable.
This competition not only showcased a high level of competitive performance, but also brought rich rewards to the players.
Due to the absence of doubles, Chen's prize money was reduced by $2,000, but it was still as high as $1780,000 RMB.
In the WTT finals, Chen Meng performed well, finishing third and successfully advancing to the semifinals in both the women's singles and doubles competitions, and finally received a prize of $27,000, equivalent to 1920,000 RMB.
While this figure is impressive, compared to her stellar achievement in 2019, the income now seems a bit bleak and can almost be described as insignificant.
Although Wang Manyu won the top 8 singles and women's doubles championships in the WTT finals, she received 21,500 US dollars, a total of 1530,000 yuan, but became the most disappointed player in this game.
Wang Manyu was the only one of the big five who didn't make it to the semi-finals of the Women's Singles, however, in the semi-finals, she seemed to have been helped by Sun Yingsha to stop Chen Meng, thus preventing her from qualifying for the Olympic singles ahead of schedule and avoiding a disaster.
Winning the finals means not only a gold medal, but also a total of 3,500 Olympic points. Chen Meng achieved a far lead in this way, which made it difficult for Manyu to realize his desires.
In addition to Hina Hayata, Qian Tianyi and others who stopped in the top 16 with a prize of $12,000, the top eight players such as Zhang Rui, Han Ying, and Misei Ito shared a reward of $17,500.
In the high-profile semifinals of the 2023 WTT Women's Table Tennis Finals, Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng staged a fierce civil war.
At the beginning of the game, the two sides clashed against each other, and the difference in points was huge, like the prelude to the peak duel of table tennis. Sun Yingsha led 11-9, and a tense and fierce atmosphere enveloped the game.
Chen Meng fought hard to tie the score at 1-1 in the second game, showing the extraordinary level of the top players.
The referee's controversial decision took center stage and sparked a heated debate among the fans!
There was a dramatic scene in the third game, and when the score came to 5-4, the referee's decision caused chaos throughout the game.
The referee determined that Chen Meng's return ball was a side-by-side score, but Sun Yingsha insisted that the ball did not score on the side.
The referee hesitated, the score changed back and forth, Chen Mengxin was dissatisfied, Sun Yingsha asked for a video playback, because the referee did not understand English, the scene was embarrassing, and finally a controversial point was awarded to Sun Yingsha.
This penalty not only disrupted Chen Meng's rhythm of the game, but also significantly affected her state, laying a hidden danger for the next game.
In the first two games, Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha went back and forth, and the situation was stalemate. However, the referee's hesitation brought huge variables to the whole game.
Prior to the controversial decision, both players were evenly matched. However, the referee's hesitation affected Chen Meng's mentality, disrupted her tactics, and created conditions for Sun Yingsha's counterattack.
In the heat of competition, even a small change in mindset can make the difference between victory and defeat.
Sun Yingsha's victory sparked dissatisfaction among Chen Meng's fans, with some criticizing her for being disgraceful, arguing that as a teammate, she should not force the referee to change the decision, and some people attacked her character.
Obviously, this rhetoric is too extreme. On the pitch, competition and tactical wits are commonplace, but personal attacks are clearly out of bounds!
These bonuses may seem quite impressive in terms of prize distribution, but they are actually not that much compared to what chess earns!
The championship prize of the Country Garden Cup is as high as 700,000 yuan, which is a peak moment. At the same time, the 2023 World Badminton Finals are underway, and the prize money is surprisingly high.
The huge disparity between the women's singles and women's doubles prize money, even if it seems to be a huge prize money, highlights this problem. Sun Yingsha won the women's singles prize of US$40,000, while the women's doubles champion only received US$8,000, a difference of as much as five times.
Because of this disparity, players are more inclined to participate in women's singles tournaments, as there is a huge difference in returns despite the same effort they put in.
This has been the case not only at the WTT World Cup, but also in other tournaments, raising concerns about the fairness of prize money, as fair play has always been crucial in sports.
An unfair distribution of prize money can change a player's mentality and thus have an impact on the intensity of the game.
The total prize fund for the women's table tennis finals is $2.5 million, which is 735 times.
Considering the prize money level of the men's finals, this gap has reached more than 3 times, which makes people sigh that the commercial value of table tennis in the international arena is indeed quite limited!
Perhaps, if table tennis wants to succeed in the business world, it needs more innovative and trend-setting elements. Although the prize money is not as generous as other tournaments, the record of national table tennis is not inferior, and their brilliant achievements are really remarkable.
We should look at the inadequacy of the distribution of prize money, not only witnessing the glory of the seven golden flowers, but also behind the gold medal feast.
Only by improving the amount of prize money and strengthening supervision can we make sports more fair and ensure that every player can get the honor and reward they deserve in the arena.
It is expected that in the future competitions, a more fair and reasonable bonus system will emerge to motivate athletes to sprint forward more actively and create more brilliant moments belonging to them.