World Championships Team Mates Turn Rivals At 2016 ITTF Kuwait Open

Champions and team mates at the recently concluded Perfect World Team Table Tennis Championships, the Chinese team now stands at the opposite ends of the table to fight for title at the 2016 ITTF World Tour Kuwait Open from 16-20 March 2016.

World number one MA Long (CHN) and LIU Shiwen (CHN) will be heading the seeding, and looking to claim an unprecedented third Kuwait Open title to create history. The duo will have to overcome challenges from both international competitors as well as compatriots who stood with them to claim the World Team Championships title in Malaysia earlier this month.

MA Long who had an impressive year in 2015 winning all the major World titles on offer, will have to face World numbers two to four, FAN Zhendong, XU Xin and ZHANG Jike, in attempt to defend the crown he earned in the same city last year.

Germany’s Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Chinese Taipei’s CHUANG Chih-Yuan, both whom missed the World Championships due to injuries, will make their comeback here and lead the main challenges to MA and his team mates on their quest for gold in Kuwait.

The Chinese “Big Four”, LIU Shiwen, DING Ning, ZHU Yuling and LI Xiaoxia, will all be present as well to contest for their internal positioning in the lead up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Japanese trio of Ai FUKUHARA, Kasumi ISHIKAWA and Mima ITO who won silver at the World Team Championships will have to face off the Chinese team on duty in Kuwait to aim for the crown.

Singapore’s FENG Tianwei, having a bad year at the 2015 ITTF World Tour, will hope to restore her form to claim a title for herself. Considered the closest opponent to the Chinese dominance, FENG defeated LIU at the 2015 Asian Cup and during the Asian Championships.

The star-studded Kuwait Open is the third of the 20 events on the 2016 ITTF World Tour and the second Super Series event of the year. The ITTF World Tour is categorized into three tiers: Super (six events) Major series (six events) and Challenge (eight events). The higher the tier, the higher the prize money, better playing conditions and tougher competition for the title.

Liu Shiwen celebrating after giving China a perfect start in their quest for the 20th gold.

All the players playing ITTF World Tour events are fighting for not only for prize money and world ranking points, but also World Tour ranking points to qualify for the lucrative year-ending World Tour Grand Final, taking place on 15-18 December 2016 in a location to be announced.

The 2016 ITTF World Tour is set to be the most extensively followed tour in history, with more events shown live throughout the world on television, and all the events being shown live on ITTF’s live streaming platform, ITTF.com/itTV.

In addition to the men’s and women’s singles event in Kuwait, the worldâ’s best players will also be competing in men’s and women’s doubles and the stars of the future will be lining up in the men’s and women’s under 21 events.

The qualifications for the ITTF World Tour World Tour Kuwait Open starts today, 16 March 2016, with the main draw starting on 18 March and the finals matches on 20 March 2016.

US$3,000,000 ITTF World Tour Continues in Qatar

There is no rest for the world’s best table tennis players, as they travel from Kuwait City to Doha for the second Super Series event of the year, the GAC Group 2015 World Tour Qatar Open.

Qualifications for the US$220,000 Qatar Open begins today 17 February with the main draw starting on Friday 20 February where the top seeds face the lucky few that made it through qualification stage.

Olympic bronze medalist Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) is the headline act, as he takes part in his first World Tour event of 2015 in Qatar, after missing the Kuwait Open with an arm injury.

Ma Long powered his way to his 18th World Tour victory at the Kuwait Open.

Upon arriving in Doha, the 26 year old was in a buoyant mood after his recent win at the ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup a few weeks ago: “I have practiced well over the past two months and have got a lot of confidence from my past few tournaments, especially the ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup. My big goal here is to win my first Super Series title of the year, and I think I am well prepared to do so.”

“This is a very high level event with top players. If I play great, then I will have a good chance to win the title, but I need to focus on ball by ball starting in the first round.”

OVTCHAROV will need to be at his best to beat rivals such as Marcos FREITAS (POR), CHUANG Chih-Yuan (TPE) and Vladimir SAMSONOV (BLR) to reach his ultimate goal.

FENG Tianwei (SIN), who won three World Tour events in 2014, will be the hot favourite on the women’s side with no Chinese players taking part in the event.

The stylish defender SEO Hyowon (KOR) and Georgina POTA (HUN), who had a breakthrough year in 2014 reaching the Women’s World Cup and World Tour Grand Finals semi finals, will be FENG’s big threat to the title in Qatar.

Qualification for the GAC Group 2015 Qatar Open Kicks Off Today in Doha!

The 2015 World Tour is offering a record US$3,000,000 in prize money and will also be the most viewed in history, with more events shown live throughout the world on television and all the events being shown live on ITTF’s live streaming platform, itTV.

As was the case in 2014, the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour will be split up into three tiers (highest first): Super (6 events), Major (6 events), Challenge (11 events).

The top 16 singles and top 8 doubles pairs on the World Tour Standings will then be invited to the prestigious World Tour Grand Finals at the end of the year, the location to be announced later.