Saarbrücken Wins Bid to Host Liebherr 2016 ITTF Men’s World Cup

The International Table Tennis Federation is excited to announce that the Liebherr 2016 Men’s World Cup will be held in Saarbrücken, Germany.

The prestigious event, which only 20 of the world’s best table tennis players qualify for, will be staged in Saarlandhalle between 01 – 03 October 2016.

Saarbrücken will be the third German city and the 12th European city to host the event since the first World Cup in 1980.

Magdeburg was the host in 2010, more recently in 2014, Düsseldorf was the home; notably on both occasions, China’s Zhang Jike, the reigning Olympic champion reached the final.

“We hope for a full house on all three days,” said Michael GEIGER, President of the German Table Tennis Association. “Spectator interest in the region is enormous; the tournament starts on a Saturday and concludes on Monday, the Day of German Unity, a public holiday throughout the country.”

“German table tennis fans can easily visit the three day table tennis festival”, added GEIGER. “It is quite some time ago since we had a top event in this part of the country.”

Klaus BOUILLON, the Saarland Minister of the Interior was equally excited about the city securing the bid for the prestigious world title event: “I look forward to this high profile event at which we will certainly experience high level and exciting matches in the Saarlandhalle; the Saarland will prove worthy host.”

Ma Long edges closer to his Grand Slam dream after 2015 Men’s World Cup victory!

It will be the 16th time that Europe has staged the event since first being the host in 1995 in Nîmes. Furthermore, it will be the 12th consecutive time that Europe has been the home.

The unbroken run started in Liège in 2005; in Saarbrücken the local fans would welcome a repeat of that edition, where German superstar Timo Boll beat the Chinese trio of Wang Liqin, Ma Lin and Wang Hao to win the title!

The 2015 edition, which was held in the Swedish city of Halmstad from 16 – 18 October 2015, saw World number one, Ma Long winning his second consecutive World Title event after the World Championships in May, moving him closer to accomplishing his Grand Slam dream.