World Table Tennis hits back on Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng ‘retirement’ controversy

Fan and Chen, who won both individual and team gold in Paris this summer, said they were unwilling to accept fines imposed on players for skipping WTT-sanctioned tournaments.

Following a backlash from supporters of the multiple Olympic gold medal duo from mainland China, WTT attempted to defend itself against the criticism. They issued a statement explaining that the rules determining which tournaments players must participate in were nothing new.

More specifically, they highlighted changes for 2025 designed to help leading global tour professionals, which were implemented after “feedback collected directly from players.”

In response to the WTT statement, Fan wrote on Weibo: “I’m not sure when the content about punishing players who don’t participate first surfaced, but I’m sure I’ve never heard of it before “I was informed by the officials that I would be fined if I withdrew from the WTT competition.”

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