Chapter 380

At 5:30 PM, in the men's singles quarterfinal, Lin Yun-ju of the Taipei Team faced Shanxi player Wang Tingyu. Wang Tingyu was ranked 387th in the world, while Lin Yun-ju currently held the ninth spot. However, anyone who frequently watched the National Championships knew that world rankings meant nothing here; youngsters ranked outside the top five hundred could easily knock out mainstays of the Chinese National Table Tennis Team, and the word "upset" was as common as daily routine at the National Championships. This phenomenon occurred for two main reasons. First, China was a table-tennis powerhouse with countless grassroots experts, many of whom in provincial teams never had the opportunity to compete internationally, resulting in very low world rankings. Yet the playing styles of these athletes might possess traits that countered specific mainstays.