In ITTF's latest announcement, Ding Ning retired because of a shoulder injury. In the women's singles semi-final of the Rio Olympic Games in August this year, in the fierce battle between Ding Ning and North Korean chopper Song-I Kim, Ding Ning's shoulder injury was more obvious. Later, Ding Ning defeated Liu at the China Open in September and won the women's singles title. Next, she also participated in the national championship, because the national championship is related to the qualification for the National Games next year. Ding Ning chose to rest and adjust in Beijing after retiring. This morning, she sent two photos with Zhang Yining to celebrate Zhang Yining's happy birthday.
Regarding the reason for Liu's retirement, ITTF said in the announcement: "Liu made the decision to retire because of fever and waist injury." Liu has won the World Cup four times. In 2009, when she was 18 years old, she won the women's table tennis World Cup. In the history of China Women's Table Tennis World Cup 19 consecutive championships, Wang Nan, Zhang Yining and Liu are all four champions. Liu's retirement made her lose the chance to surpass Wang Nan and Zhang Yining by 20 16.
After the Rio Olympic Games, many star players missed many games because they participated in many activities and did not train systematically. Fukuhara Ai and Ishikawa Kasumi, the two main Japanese women's table tennis players, missed the China Open in September and the Women's Table Tennis World Cup 10 in early June. Among them, Ishikawa Kasumi was the runner-up of the World Cup in Sendai last year. Some netizens ridiculed Ishikawa after seeing the news of Liu's retirement today: "I will regret it (not participating)." Miki It?, another Olympic athlete of the Japanese team, did not participate in the China Open in September, but she will participate in the Women's Table Tennis World Cup with Miyuki of Ping Ye this time. They will be one of the strong contenders for the championship.
ITTF's rules for determining the World Cup entry list are: the singles champion of the World Table Tennis Championships in that year or the previous year will be automatically qualified to participate in the competition, and the rest will be invited according to the singles scores of the continental championships this season. If the invitation is issued according to the world ranking, Zhu Yuling should at least take the lead in obtaining the substitute qualification when China's three main teams, Li, Ding Ning and Liu, do not participate in the competition. However, after Ding Ning and Liu retired, ITTF gave the qualification to Soglia and Zheng Yijing in Taipei, China, respectively.