ITTF Celebrates 300th World Tour At Japan Open

The GAC Group 2015 World Tour Super Series, Japan Open in Kobe, Japan will be the 300th ITTF World Tour event, since its creation in 1996.

The ITTF World Tour revolutionized table tennis, as it gave the top players regular tournaments around the world, and a steady income from the prize money. The World Tour has gone from strength to strength in the past 19 years, and will continue to grow and develop table tennis around the world.

The Japan Open, being held on 24 – 28 June 2015 is the 11th stop of the US$3,000,000 GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour, with qualification rounds beginning today, 24 June 2015 at the Green Arena Kobe. The prestigious event sees participation of 167 men and women from 21 countries, all vying to be the 14thJapan Open Champion.

World number one MA Long will be making his first international appearance since becoming World Champion last month. Since the 26 year old has yet to lose a match in 2015, MA will is the hot favorite to win his 20th World Tour title here in Kobe.

Ma Long (CHN) .QOROS 2015 World Table Tennis Championships,26 Apr 2015 – 03 May 2015, Suzhou, CHN, photo credit ITTF Media

The champion of the world stated: “I always enjoy coming to Japan. Despite finally winning my first World Championships, I am still hungry to win more and more World Tour titles and create the record for the most in history, which is currently held by SAMSONOV who has 26”

World number two XU Xin will be determined to put his disappointing World Championship behind him in Kobe. XU was surprisingly knocked out in the quarter finals at the World Championships held in Suzhou, China, and will be determined to add to his nine World Tour titles.

The sold out Kobe crowd will be cheering for local favourite Jun MIZUTANI to cause some upsets against more fancied opponents again to reign supreme at the Japan Open, as he did in 2012.

World number one DING Ning will be full of confidence, after her epic victory in Suzhou, where she beat LIU Shiwen in the women’s singles final, despite badly injuring her ankle in the 7th game. DING is now fully recovered and looking to secure more Race to Lisbon points to book her place at the 2015 World Tour Grand Finals.

Singapore’s FENG Tianwei, the Japan Open defending champion, has not yet reached the form that won her three ITTF World Tour titles in 2014. The London 2012 bronze medalist will hope that returning to the place of her 2014 success will spark her form back into life.

Both DING and FENG will be pushed to their limits by the crowd favourites, Japanese trio of Ai FUKUHARA, Kasumi ISHIKAWA and 14 year old Mima ITO, who are all currently ranked in the top 10 and have all recorded success on the 2015 World Tour.

Qualifications for the 16 remaining positions available in the main draw of 32 takes place on 24 – 25 June, with the knockout action getting underway on 26 June, and the winners being crowned on Sunday, 28 June.

The GAC Group 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, ITTF.com/itTV.

The Japan Open is one of six GAC Group World Tour Super Series events in 2015, which is the top tier on the World Tour. The rest of the World Tour events are split into Major series (6 events) and Challenge (11 events)

The top 16 singles and top 8 doubles pairs on the Race to Lisbon Standings will be invited to the prestigious 2015 World Tour Grand Finals to be held in Lisbon, Portugal on 10-13 December 2016.

World’s Best Arrive In Bremen For German Open

The world’s best table tennis players have arrived in Bremen, Germany for the next stop of the prestigious GAC Group 2015 World Tour Super Series, the German Open.

The German Open is traditionally one of the most popular World Tour events among the players and fans, with 301 players from 48 countries making their way to Bremen for the fourth World Tour of 2015.

As usual in Germany, all eyes will be on the local hero and former world number one Timo BOLL (GER). BOLL will be playing his first international event since his semi-final appearance at the Liebherr 2014 Men’s World Cup in October last year.

If the 34-year-old, who has won this tournament a record four times, wins two matches at the Men’s Singles main draw, he is on course to play an intriguing quarter-final match against his Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships doubles partner, world number one MA Long.

Barthel, German Open 2015, credit ittfworld

On this potential match up, BOLL stated: “I always look forward to playing against top players like MA Long. Every time we play, we have amazing matches, so if we play in the quarter-finals, I hope to give the crowd a great match.”

The capacity German crowd at theOVB-Arena, will also be treated to seeing more action from the world’s best such as World and Olympic Champion ZHANG Jike (CHN), Olympic bronze medalist Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) and world number five Jun MIZUTANI (JPN).

World number four FENG Tianwei (SIN) will be looking to continue her red hot form which saw her beat two top Chinese players on her way to winning the Asian Cup title last week.

The London 2012 bronze medalist was the form player of the 2014 World Tour, winning three titles, but has not yet got off the mark in 2015.

The Japanese pair of Kasumi ISHIKAWA and Ai FUKUHARA will also be confident for the German Open crown, as will the Qatar Open champion Elizabeta SAMARA (ROU) and the hometown favourite HAN Ying (GER).

Qualifications for the 16 available positions in the main draw of 32 takes place on 18-19 March, with the knockout action getting underway on 20 March, and the winners being crowned on Sunday 22 March.

Venue of the 2015 German Open, credit ittfworld

The GAC Group 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.

38 year old Samsonov wins record 26th ITTF World Tour Title in Qatar

Belarusian Vladimir SAMSONOV has sensationally won his 26th ITTF World Tour title at the GAC Group 2015 World Tour Super Series Qatar Open.

The 38 year old responded to China’s MA Long closing in on his record after he won the Kuwait Open last week, by showing vintage form to defeat Olympic bronze medalist Dimitrij OVTCHAROV 11-9, 11-8, 15-13, 6-11, 11-9 in the final.

This was a dramatically different SAMSONOV who lost in the opening round of last week’s Kuwait Open to turn around his form to taste Qatar Open success, just as he did in 2003 when he was world number one.

“I was down in the first game and won, but I think more importantly I was 4-8 behind in the third game and won; that was the crucial game in the match” stated SAMSONOV.

“Dima (OVTCHAROV) and myself, we know each other so well, we both play for the same club in the Russian League. I wanted to win and I am really happy that I won. I won in 2003 but I didn’t expect to win this year; Qatar is always a strong tournament and this year I played well from the very start.”

The number seven seed, Romanian Elizabeta SAMARA shocked the strong women’s field to become the women’s champion.

Samsonov smashes his way to this 26th ITTF World Tour title in Qatar.

The 25 year old from Constanta, Romania, marked a spectacular recovery from knee surgery in November to upset the number three seed HAN Ying (GER) in the final: 11-6, 12-10, 11-6, 11-9.

“During the match, my coach just told me to be calm, to relax and not to panic because I had never beaten HAN before” stated SAMARA.

“This victory means a lot to me, as it is my first Super Series title and my third World Tour victory overall. Plus my first one since my knee operation!”

Marcos FREITAS (POR) and Andrej GACINA (CRO) won the men’s doubles title, after beating the Brazilian pair of Hugo CALDERANO and Gustavo TSUBOI 11-3, 11-5, 12-10. The Brazilians have made history by becoming the first ever Latin Americans to reach an ITTF World Tour Super Series Final.

Hong Kong’s JIANG Huajun and TIE Yana were the women’s doubles champions. The Hong Kong pair who won their fourth World Tour title here in Doha defeated Singapore’s LIN Ye and ZHOU Yihan 11-3, 11-9, 11-8 in the final.

Benjamin BROSSIER of France and Romania’s Bernadette SZOCS won the respective under 21 men’s Singles and under 21 women’s singles titles to close out the gold medals at the GAC Group 2015 World Tour Super Series Qatar Open.

The next stop on the GAC Group ITTF World Tour is the Nigerian Open in Lagos on March 10 and the German Open in Bremen on March 18.