The international calendar of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) will resume after several months of suspended activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with two World Cup events scheduled in China, respectively the Liebherr 2020 ITTF Men’s World Cup slated for November 13-15 and Uncle Pop 2020 ITTF Women’s World Cup scheduled for November 8-10.
The World Cups will feature 20 female and 20 male athletes, including the world champion, qualified players from all completed continental events (Africa, Europe, and Pan America), and players selected by world ranking from the other continents (Asia and Oceania), as well as the whole world according to the provisional World Cup playing system.
The top 16 world-ranked male and top 16 world-ranked female players will lock horns in men’s singles and women’s singles competition at the ITTF Finals, where a cap of four players per national association will ensure an exciting spread of star talent from across the globe.
Worrld no.1, Fan Zhendong from China, who lifted the 2019 Men’s World Cup in Chengdu, will lead the men category alongside fellow country compatriot, Ma Long who was Considered by many as the greatest table tennis player of all time as well as a number of other top Asian players to have qualified via their world ranking, such as teenage talents, Tomokazu Harimoto from Japan, world no.4 and just 16 years of age, and Lin Yun-Ju, the 18 years old was ranked 7 in the world.
The 2019 Europe Cup winner Timo Boll and the former world n.1 Dimitrij Ovtcharov – who entered as a wild card – will be representing Europe at the men’s singles.
For the American continent, Hugo Calderano from Brazil will be keen to make a big impact following his third straight success at the Pan America Cup.
The 2020 Africa Cup champion Ahmed Saleh and world n. 20 Quadri Aruna will represent Africa, while Heming Hu from Australia will be travelling to China as Oceania’s highest-ranked player.
Meanwhile, The Women’s World Cup will see Liu Shiwen from China looking to add to her record-breaking five titles in the competition. Qualified through her 2019 World Championship success in Budapest, the superstar also won last year’s Women’s World Cup in Chengdu to make more history in the process.
Among the players to have qualified via the continental cups, there are Dina Meshref from Egypt with the record of eight Africa Cup titles, Petrissa Solja from Germany, Europe’s highest-ranked female player at world no.14, Sofia Polcanova Austria will represent Europe.
Winner of back-to-back Pan America Cup titles, Adriana Diaz and Lily Zhang from USA, the 2019 ITTF Breakthrough Star and one of the standout players at last year’s Women’s World Cup in which she reached the semi-finals.
Since the Asia and Oceania Cups were unable to be held due to COVID-19, players have been selected according to world ranking with many familiar faces set to enter the action, such as Mima Ito (Japan), world no.2 and still only 19 years of age; Zhu Yuling (China), runner-up at the 2019 Women’s World Cup; Feng Tianwei, bronze medallist at last year’s event in Chengdu; and Lay Jian Fang (Australia), the highest-ranked player in Oceania.
Additionally, Bernadette Szocs (Romania) enters as the wild card, while Suthasini Sawettabut (Thailand) qualifies as the original host player, as the event got moved from Bangkok to China.
The president of the International Table Tennis Federation, Thomas Weikert has revealed that ever since the pandemic struck, the ITTF has been working tirelessly to bring table tennis back to the global community in a safe and secure manner. While it has not been an easy journey, the ITTF would like to express its heartfelt gratitude towards all the stakeholders for their support in these challenging times.
“Ensuring a safe return to international table tennis has been our utmost priority ever since the pandemic broke out and so I am delighted that, with the fantastic support and hard work carried out by everyone at the ITTF over several months, we have managed to get events back up and running before the end of 2020,” he said.
The ITTF has issued a set of guidelines with mandatory requirements and recommendations to allow athletes and fans to continue to enjoy and participate in our sport during the pandemic (Click here to see the full document)
Story By: Hassan Abdulsalam – Freelance Sports Journalist
