Top table tennis players to compete in S’pore at T2 Diamond league
Singaporean paddler Feng Tianwei competing in the T2 Asia-Pacific Table Tennis League in June 2017.
SINGAPORE — Local table tennis fans will be able to watch the world’s top paddlers “live” in action in November after Singapore was chosen as one of the three host cities of the revamped T2 Diamond Table Tennis League.
Touted as the new Grand Slam of table tennis, the second season of the US$1.5 million (S$2 million) tournament will feature 32 of the world’s best players competing across three legs in Johor Baru (Malaysia), Haikou (China) and Singapore.
Organised by professional table tennis league T2 in collaboration with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), T2 Diamond’s opening event in Malaysia will kick off in July, followed by the second leg at Mission Hills Resort in Hainan in September, before the season-ending event in Singapore two months later. Details of the venues for the first and third leg will be announced at a later date.
T2 said in its press release on Monday (March 25) that Singapore was chosen as its final stop due to its infrastructure, geographic location and accessibility which was “key in attracting top international athletes”.
“We look at moulding the T2 Diamond concept to fit uniquely into each of the city’s long-term goals to both increase the opportunities for sports tourism and community engagement through sports within the city and to develop the global attraction of table tennis,” said Mr Jeff Chue, T2 chief executive officer and commissioner.
The top 15 male and 15 female paddlers from the 2019 ITTF World Tour standings will qualify for the T2 Diamond, with two host exemptions selected by the host city partner.
Singapore’s top female paddler, world No 10 Feng Tianwei, and teammate Yu Mengyu are currently ranked joint-17th on the World Tour table. Three-time Olympic medallist Feng competed in the inaugural season of the T2 Diamond — previously named the T2 Asia-Pacific Table Tennis League — alongside world No 1 Ding Ning of China and Japan’s Jun Mizutani in 2017.
The first edition of the tournament had opened to much fanfare in June 2017, boasting a US$1.75 million prize purse and snazzy game format in which four mixed teams competed throughout the season in 24-minute, time-based matches.
After a revamp, the T2 Diamond this year will see a total of 32 matches (16 men’s singles, 16 women’s singles) in each leg in a best-of-seven games format.
Players will also be able to earn bonus world rankings points as they battle for qualification for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
