According to the Chinese the decline of European TT started in 1996.

@@dickn.ormous1064 Interesting. Two Europeans played the final of WTTC '97 in Manchester. In 2000 Sweden and in 2002 Belgium won WTTTC. Perhaps a swan song...

​@@marek_petrovsky Samsonov was never viewed as a legitimate rival to China, he was an all-round player but lacked power.Gatien declined after 1995 due to injuries,Persson had a car accident in 1994 although his career was declining even before the accident,Saive was strong against Europeans but always struggled against Asians and Primorac suffered from nerves. Waldner was still unbeatable against any Chinese save for Liu Guoliang but unfortunately suffered a thumb injury just before the 1996 Olympics.Belgium's second place in 2001 had more to do with Europe's decline.Saive bros were in their 30's nearing the end of their career.Overall,European TT has a problem of attracting and developing new players. The fall of the USSR and socialist countries in general didn't help matters at all with top players like Korbel ending up as club players in Germany lacking any direction in their development.

@@dickn.ormous1064 Thank you, yes, I agree. Samsonov showed tremendous promise in 1995 Tianjin, 1996 Atlanta, reached final in Manchester but in time ultimately faltered. An enigmatic figure for me is Wang Tao. There is not much info about him. Great skill, but always failed to win a major individual title. Do you have some thoughts why that was the case?... another case may be Ma Wenge.

​@@marek_petrovsky Wang Tao had tons of luck in 1996 against Samsonov.Also in 1995 after Persson's car accident.He had a good record against Korean penhold players and was a doubles specialist.After penhold was binned by Chinese coaches he became an essential member of the Chinese team.Chinese lefties have always been a liability in singles.It was more an act of desperation. Ma Wenge was a solid player.He had an incredible record against Persson(in 1993 it stood 9-1)but his style was too simplistic against Waldner.He also bumped into many Europeans who where peaking at the time(Grubba in 1989,Korbel in 1991,Gatien at the1992 Olympics,Saive in 1993 etc.).He was probably stronger than Kong Linghui but was rather unlucky to emerge when European TT was really strong.Overall,China still relied on weird styles and preferable matchups.Liu Guoliang with his serves was buying time for Chinese shakehanders to develop.