BEIJING: Chinese paddlers Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, and Chen Meng, who won gold medals at the recently-concluded Paris Olympic Games, have withdrawn from next month's World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions tournament in Macao, WTT announced on Wednesday.
Consequently, their spots will be filled by their compatriots Lin Gaoyuan, Lin Shidong and Chen Xingtong, respectively, based on world rankings.
At the Paris Olympics, Fan clinched the men's singles title to become the 11th player overall to have achieved a career Grand Slam of the Olympic Games, World Championships and World Cup, before teaming up with Ma, another Grand Slam winner, and Wang Chuqin to pocket the team gold.
Chen Meng defended her title in the women's singles event and won the team gold along with Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu.
The WTT Champions tournament in Macao will run from September 9 to 15, with men's and women's winners garnering 1, 000 world ranking points.
China dominated the table tennis competitions in the Paris Olympic Games, winning five out of five gold medals. Besides the five gold medals, China also won one silver medal.
China is the top nation in WTT Champions tournaments with its players being favourites for the titles.