CHINESE men’s table tennis team decided to withdraw from the Australian Open, the sport’s world governing body ITTF said on its official website Thursday.

“The Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) has withdrawn the Chinese men’s team for the upcoming Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Platinum Australian Open,” the ITTF said in a statement.

“It is unfortunate that the decision was made to withdraw the entire men’s team of Zhang Jike, Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin, Yan An, Liang Jingkun and Lin Gaoyuan from the Australian Open, despite only two of the players (Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin) being involved in last week’s incident at the China Open,” the statement said.

“The men’s team cancellation is disappointing news for all table tennis fans around the world,” it said.

The Chinese table tennis team later responded that they decided to withdraw the men’s team since the players were just tired or with injuries.

“Regarding the latest tight schedule of competitions, the Chinese table tennis team has decided to rest the men’s team and withdraw them for the 2017 ITTF World Tour Australian Open,” said the statement.

The withdrawal of the Chinese men’s team was confirmed six days after three players and two coaches of the team pulled out of the China Open in protest of the CTTA’s decision to remove Liu Guoliang as the team’s chief.

The six female players, Zhu Yulin, Chen Meng, Chen Xingtong, Gu Yuting, Zhang Qiang and Wang Manyu, will take part as planned in the US$400,000 event being held in the Gold Coast, Australia.

The men’s team’s decision to withdraw will see Japanese players Jun Mizutani, Niwa Koki, Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-yuan and Samsonov of Belarus rise to top four seeds.

The Australian Open starts July 4.(SD-Xinhua)