"Seed player" can be said to be synonymous with excellent athletes. Therefore, ITTF has only one purpose to determine the seed players before each World Table Tennis Championships, that is, to prevent outstanding athletes from meeting prematurely and being "eaten" in the competition, so that they can better play their own level.
The determination of seed players is mainly based on the athletes' achievements in the last World Table Tennis Championships and major international competitions in the past two years, with reference to the registration situation. Also, the seeded players have a definite position in the lottery and do not participate in the qualifiers, so they have an advantage over the non-seeded players. For example, in the 1~28-player competition, 1, No.2, No.3 and No.4 were ranked at 1, 128, No.65 and No.64 respectively. Under normal circumstances, the 1 seed can only meet the No.4 seed in the semi-final, and the winner is the second. This is the special treatment enjoyed by the seed players.
2. Is it better to play table tennis tall or short?
Whether it is football, basketball or volleyball, most people like tall players because they have "air superiority" that others don't have. Is there such a demand for table tennis? Our view is that table tennis is not about height.
The table tennis competition venue is not big, and the table is only 76 cm high. There is no need to do the actions closely related to height like football, basketball or volleyball, and there is no need to compete for air superiority. So short stature does not affect the play of table tennis.
Although the tall players have long arms, the "care" surface on the table is correspondingly larger; But big players are inflexible, which is a defect for table tennis with strong flexibility and high technical requirements. On the contrary, small players are more suitable for playing table tennis because of their low center of gravity and flexible use of various parts of their bodies. In addition, the heaviest weight of table tennis is only 2.53 grams, which is not difficult for tall or short people, so tall and short people have their own advantages in table tennis, and no one will have an absolute advantage.