One of the marque events on the ITTF calendar the 2015 ITTF Women’s World Cup is just 50 days away!   The 2015 Women’s World Cup will take place from 30 October to 1 November 2015 in Sendai Japan the same city that was devastated by a tsunami in 2011.   Only 20 of the world’s best women’s table tennis players are invited to play in the Women’s World Cup. 17 of them have qualified through their respective Continental Cups plus the current World Champion a host country player and a wildcard.   Current world champion DING Ning will miss the event to finally get over the ankle sprain she sustained in the dramatic World Championships final this year. This means that the woman she defeated in that historic final LIU Shiwen will be the favorite to win a remarkable fourth Women’s World Cup which would equal the record currently held by ZHANG Yining.   The sold-out crowd will be fully behind the local Japanese due of Kasumi ISHIKAWA and Ai FUKUHARA who are world ranked number four and five respectively and will be expected to be pushing for the title on 1 November 2015. Both of the Japanese stars have been the stand out performers on the GAC Group 2015 World Tour so this will give them the confidence to lift the cup in front of their home crowd.   The full list of 20 players that have qualified for one of the biggest shows in table tennis are:   MESHREF Dina (EGY) – African Cup Winner FENG Tianwei (SIN) – Asian Cup Winner KUMAHARA Caroline (BRA) – Latin American Cup Winner ZHANG Mo (CAN) – North American Cup Winner LAY Jian Fang (AUS) – Oceania Cup Winner LIU Jia (AUT) – Europe Cup Winner LIU Shiwen (CHN) – Asian Cup 2nd place ZHU Yuling (CHN) – Asian Cup 3rd place SOLJA Petrissa (GER) – Europe Cup 2nd place IVANCAN Irene (GER) – Europe Cup 3rd place FUKUHARA Ai (JPN) – Asian Cup 4th place ISHIKAWA Kasumi (JPN) – Asian Cup 5th place SEO Hyowon (KOR) – Asian Cup 6th place DOO Hoi Kem (HKG) – Asian Cup 7th place LI Jiao (NED) – Europe Cup 4th place HU Melek (TUR) – Europe Cup 5th place POTA Georgina (HUN) – Europe Cup 6th place LI Jie (NED) – Europe Cup 9th place CHENG I-Ching (TPE) – Asian Cup 8th place YANG Haeun (KOR) – Wild card

GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Belgium Open   A Challenge Series tournament GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Belgium Open is staged in De Haan a municipality in West Flanders. It is situated on the country’s northern English channel coastline.   Singapore’s FENG Tianwei heads the lists of entries in the Women’s Singles event whilst KIM Minseok of Korea is the leading name in the Men’s Singles Event.   Best ranked European player on the seeding list in men’s Event is LI Ahmet of Turkey at the position no. 5 Mattias KARLSSON of Sweden is ranked at the position no. 9. Legendary Jean Michel SAIVE is also on duty seeded no. 11 just one place above his compatriot Cedric NUYTINCK.   Bernadette SZOCS of Romania is seeded no. 7 followed by Yana NOSKOVA of Russia at the position no. 10 Anamaria ERDELJI of Serbia seeded no. 15 and Lisa LUNG of Belgium at position no. 16.   The main draw starts tomorrow.   In qualifications the top eight players recorded victories in opening rounds. Dennis KLEIN of Germany Konstantin CHERNOV of Russia QIU Dang of Germany Gencay MENGE of Turkey Andrea LANDRIEU of France Vidan GADIEV of Russia Luka FUCEC of Croatia Lionel WEBER of Switzerland all concluded the day victoriously.  

30th International Open VIC – 11th Adapted   Oriol MONZÓ and Natalya PROSVIRNINA clinched the titles in their respective Men’s and Women’s Singles Event at the 30th Internacional Open VIC tournament. In Sports Hall VIC in Barcelona Jorge CARDONA triumph in the test adapted category.   In the final of the 30 th International Open Oriol MONZÓ beat Joan MASIP in straight games whilst at the ultimate stage of the Women’s Singles Event Natalya PROSVIRNINA was stretched to full distance in the match against Maria XIAO. At the 11th Adapted tournament Jorge CARDONA succeeded against Jordi MORALES -3:0.

Mr WEIKERT & Mr MORI together with colleagues to discuss additional Olympic table tennis gold   The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) President Mr Thomas WEIKERT personally met the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Organising Committee President Mr Yoshiro MORI to discuss an additional table tennis gold for 2020. Mr WEIKERT explained in details to Mr MORI about the proposal submitted to the IOC to add mixed doubles competition to compliment the existing four table tennis events already on show at Tokyo 2020. At the conclusion of the meeting which was held at the Tokyo 2020 headquarters Mr WEIKERT stated: “I was very warmly welcomed by the President and I was very impressed with his knowledge of table tennis and the Japanese table tennis team. ITTF’s initiative to add the mixed doubles event at Tokyo 2020 was well received and Mr MORI and his team were very positive about the idea.” To control the number of athletes at Tokyo 2020 only athletes already qualified for the current four events (men’s & women’s singles and men’s & women’s teams) would be eligible to play in the mixed doubles competition. If the mixed doubles competition is added in Tokyo 2020 the ITTF is proposing that National Olympic Committees will only be able to enter players in a maximum of four of the five events on offer. The mixed doubles competition is a fan favorite at the World Table Tennis Championships where it has been an ever-present fixture since the Championships began back in 1926. Joining Mr WEIKERT in the mixed doubles discussion was the ITTF Executive Vice President Mr Masahiro MAEHARA and Japan Table Tennis Association representatives Mr Koji KIMURA and Mrs Sachiko YOKOTA. Also meeting Mr WEIKERT was TOCOG Executive Director of Sports and International Relations Mr Aki MURASATO TOCOG Senior Director of Sport Competition Mr Hiro KUWABARA and TOCOG Director Sports Competition Mr Kenichi MORITA.

HAN beat CHENG I-Ching in the straight games of the final clash whilst Japanese overcame Timo BOLL in five sets The best ranked European representative on the ITTF Women`s ranking list HAN Ying and Japanese Jun MIZUTANI are the winners of the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Austrian Open (Major) held in Wels. German woman beat two strong opponents in the last two games both in straight games. First HAN defeated the no. 2 seed Ai FUKUHARA from Japan concluding Austrian Open against CHENG I-Ching who managed to eliminate no. 1 seed Kasumi ISHIKAWA in the quarter-final. LI Jie from Netherlands also had a good tournament but lost in the semi-final encounter against CHENG. The Old Continent had two players in the Men Singles Event. Actual individual European champion Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and no. 1 seed in this event overcame Korean JANG Woojin in five sets of the semi-final round while Croatian Andrej GACINA was beaten by MIZUTANI in straight games. Four European player participated in the Women`s Doubles Event as SHAN Xiaona and Petrissa SOLJA prevailed against LI Jie (Netherlands) and LI Qian (Poland). The final clash has took four games. Germans Patrick FRANZISKA and Bastian STEGER lost from Korean pair JANG Woojin/LEE Sangsu in the Men`s Doubles Event final.

International and European Federation hold a meeting at the WSA at the same time Representatives from 17 nations “storm” the ETTU-Women-Table Tennis Coaches Seminar with a Chinese special guest On Monday September the 7th the Werner Schlager Academy in Schwechat experiences another highlight. Besides the regular operation of the (inter-) national WSA-training-group the world-table tennis training-center in the heart of Europe has special visitors. Two hot-spots will take place at the same time next door to each other in the premises of the WSA. Hot-Spot 1: The international federation ITTF under the direction of the Viennese European-Champion in the Doubles from 2005 Karl JINDRAK organizes a workshop for its staff in their European head office on the second floor of the building. JINDRAK is now the “Competition Director” of the biggest sport federation of the world with its 222 member nations. Hot-Spot 2: Two floors deeper in the WSA-complex the 1st Women Table Tennis Coaches seminar of the European federation ETTU will take place. Headed by the ETTU-Vice-President Ivo Goran MUNIVRANA and coordinated and organized by the WSA-Women-Headcoach Neven CEGNAR who is at the same time ETTU Development Manager not less than 24 guests from 17 (!) different nations will participate at this top-class ETTU seminar. The seminar welcomes two “special guests”. One of them: LI Xiaodong Chinas highest table tennis headcoach who will give a lecture regarding “footwork in modern table tennis”. The second special guest is Polona Cehovin SUSIN the ITTF Director of Education and Training who will also give a presentation. The high number of participants at the ETTU-Women-Coaches seminar is a bit surprising but shows that the European National-Table Tennis Bosses have realized that there is need for action and a need for catching up in comparison to China and Asia. The WSA in Schwechat now ushers in a new era…

2016 World Veteran Championships (23rd -29th May)   Alicante/Elche will stage the forthcoming 2016 World Veteran Championships. The Royal Spanish Table Tennis Federation expects to receive no less than 4 000 players to the Costa Blanca; a figure that would exceed the previous record of 3 650 on the German city of Bremen in 2006. Staged at the Institución Ferial Alicantina (IFA) commencing on Monday 23rd May the tournament will conclude on Sunday 29th May; one day longer than originally planned in order to meet the anticipated increased demand. There will be a new category; there be events for players in the 90 years and over category. Entries will be logged in chronological order; now some nine months before the tournament is due to start over 500 entries have already been received. The first registration period which commenced on Monday 29th June will close on Tuesday 15th December 2015; the entry fee being €150.00 per player plus €50.00 per accompanying guest. Immediately following the second registration period will commence on Wednesday 16th December and will close on Monday 29th February; the entry fee during this period rises to €195.00 per player but with the cost for an accompanying guest remaining the same at €50.00. Once registration with full remittance has been completed players will receive notification by email with regards to doubles; the deadline for doubles which must be confirmed by both players is Friday 13th May. All details here