BEIJING (Agencies/SCMP): Olympic champions Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng stunned Chinese table tennis fans by announcing that they were withdrawing from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings on Friday, barely five months after winning Olympic gold.
Fan and Chen, who at the Paris Games won gold in the men’s and women’s singles respectively as well as in team events, said the decision to step away was because of rules that fines would be imposed on players who did not take part in international tournaments.
