The qualified players for the lucrative GAC Group 2015 World Tour Grand Finals have been announced after a record-breaking end to the regular World Tour season, which consisted of 22 stops.
The final World Tour event of 2015 was played out in Sweden on the weekend, where the world’s best table tennis players fought it out for the final positions on the standing list at the GAC Group 2015 World Tour Grand Finals, which will take place on 10-13 December 2015 in Lisbon, Portugal.
Only 16 men and 16 women were able to secure their golden ticket to Lisbon, as well as eight men’s and women’s doubles pairs, and eight men’s and women’s under 21 players.
World Champion and World number one MA Long (CHN) topped the Race to Lisbon standings after another very consistent year on the tour winning two Super Series titles. Japan’s Ai FUKUHARA finished number one on the women’s charts after winning three World Tour titles in 2015.
MA, who won both the 2015 World Championships and the recent 2015 Men’s World Cup stated “Happy to have qualified after missing out last year, and I look forward to capping off a dream year with another big title!”
The pair who battled it out for gold at the end of season Swedish Open men’s singles final, XU Xin (CHN) and FAN Zhendong (CHN) were the next two on the men’s list, just ahead of JUNG Youngsik (KOR) and Maharu YOSHIMURA (JPN) who both had a breakthrough season on the GAC Group 2015 World Tour.
China Open Champion ZHU Yuling (CHN) and 15 year old Japanese sensation Mima ITO followed FUKUHARA on the women’s charts and will be heading to Lisbon looking for World Tour Grand Final glory.
Despite having the second half of her reason ruined by injury and sickness, World Champion DING Ning (CHN) did enough to book her place in Lisbon, as did World number one and World Cup Champion LIU Shiwen (CHN).
The local Portuguese fans will have a player in every event to cheer for in Lisbon. They will be led by World number seven Marcos FREITAS, who had a strong year on the tour to finish seventh on the Race to Lisbon standings and will be looking for glory in front of his home fans.
The US$3,000,000 GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour, consisted of 22 events split into three tiers based on prize money and the quality of the event: Super Series (six events), Major Series (five events) and Challenge Series (11 events).
From these events, players earned Race to Lisbon points to qualify for the prestigious GAC Group 2015 World Tour Grand Finals, will be held at the Pavilhão Multiusos De Odivelas Lisbon, Portugal on 10-13 December 2015. To qualify, players had to play in a minimum of five events.
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