China's Ma Long competes during the men's singles table tennis final against Zhang Jike of China at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 11, 2016. Ma Long won the gold medal. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)
Players and the manufacturer who provided the official ball to the Olympic table tennis tournament accused a New York Times report of being "exaggerated and untrue" on Sunday.
The Aug. 12 report titled "A Rio Table Tennis Lament: That's the Way the Ball Crumpled" cited players criticizing the official ball made by Chinese equipment brand Double Happiness as "subpar" .
The report quoted Li Ping, a former Chinese world champion who plays for Qatar, as saying "this ball is very bad" and also cited Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov, the winner over Li in the men's singles event, as complaining that the match ball "makes it almost impossible to compete."
"It's not true," said third seeded Ovtcharov. "I never gave this interview."
Li Ping, for his part, admitted being interviewed through an interpreter by a New York times reporter but said he was misquoted.
"Yes, I spoke with that reporter for about 15 minutes. I said the International Table Tennis Federation's changes to equipment had affected my play but I didn't complain about the match ball. I have gotten used to this new plastic ball," he said.
"What the reporter wrote in the article is untrue and he is unprofessional."
The ITTF changed the material of the ball from celluloid to plastic two years ago in an attempt to reduce the speed of the game and make the sport more viewer friendly.
Double Happiness, the match ball producer, also spoke out against the report.
"The New York Times is one of the most prestigious newspapers in the world. How could they make up quotes and use a fake photo?" said Guan Yasong, production chief of Double Happiness, pointing to a photo of crumpled balls on the report.
"Look, these balls are not official match balls and most of them were crumpled by someone, not broken after being hit by players."
China's newly crowned men's singles champion Ma Long and second-seeded woman Feng Tianwei from Singapore said the official ball was "consistent" with the sport's norms and "of high quality".
"I broke only one ball in my singles games and haven't broken any in five rounds of team competition," said Feng.
"I didn't break any in the games," said Ma Long.
ITTF president Thomas Weikert told reporters that the Double Happiness ball is up to the ITTF standard. "Otherwise it would never become the Olympic match ball," he said.
