No Fan, no problem for China’s men, but questions remain over Olympic champ’s future

China’s men and women continued their total dominance of the World Team Table Tennis Championships in London on Sunday, and the former’s easy win over Japan again raised questions about the future of star Fan Zhendong.

The Olympic champion has not played for his country since claiming gold in Paris two years ago, and quit the International Table Tennis Federation rankings just months later.

While he has kept busy playing in Germany and in some tournaments at home, there has been little sign of his return to the men’s national team and last month Fan said he was skipping the UK event “for personal reasons”.

In his absence, world No 1 Wang Chuqin guided teammates Liang Jingkun and Lin Shidong to a 3-0 win that secured a 12th consecutive title since 2001.

Liang and Lin struggled at times during the run to gold, and Wang felt compelled to defend them afterwards, suggesting competition among countries had become increasingly fierce.

“There is no one who can stand up and say with absolute confidence, ‘I am going to win this title’,” the 26-year-old Jilin native said. “Every player has the same chance, and everyone is working extremely hard to improve and fight for their best results.”

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