Liu Guoliang is a man with a plan. The legendary Chinese player has had comparably incomparable success as the coach for the Chinese National Table Tennis Team, and now as President of the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA). Much of his winning formula can be summarized with one word: preparation. Case in point: with uncertainty surrounding the Olympics last year, Liu engineered a way to keep his players in top form by staging his own mock Olympics. With a first simulation last summer and another earlier this spring, the CTTA is now conducting its third such dress rehearsal. As the event also aims to prepare players for the new World Table Tennis (WTT) "Grand Smash" tournaments, designed to function as four yearly "Major" tournaments as in tennis or golf, the current endeavor is officially dubbed the 2021 WTT Grand Smashes Trials and Olympic Simulation. "If we aim to make our Olympic participants strong," reasoned Liu, "we need to mount as much pressure as possible." Table tennis is always competitive in China, and perhaps never more so when players are essentially auditioning for limited and highly coveted playing time on the national team. So far, the experiment has provided many surprises, as Olympic and World Champions routinely suffer upsets to lesser-known players. The first event concluded in the current simulation presages the Olympic debut of the mixed doubles event. In the final, defending mixed doubles World Champions Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen met fellow lefty-righty team Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha (pictured, left and right, respectively). It was an age-old battle of the experience versus youthful vigor, with Xu (age 31) and Liu (30) flying the former flag against Wang (21) and Sun (20). In the beginning, experience held court, with Xu/Liu forging a 3-1 lead. The match pivoted at deuce in the fifth, however, as Wang/Sun won 14-12. As momentum swung toward the youthful challengers, confidence followed suit, as Wang/Sun completed the epic comeback, (8-11, 11-9, 11-13, 8-11, 14-12, 11-4, 11-9). With such unrelenting pressure, President Liu's experiment seems certain to steel his squad.

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