The honor of playing the first match of this brand new event was given to Vladimir SAMSONOV and Timo BOLL
The T2 Asia-Pacific TT League started today in The Pinewood Studios in Johor (MAS). The honor of playing the first match of this brand new event was given to Vladimir SAMSONOV and Timo BOLL. A new team event with new rules – based on connecting to TV audiences – based on time (24 minutes per match). Moreover presented from a studio decorated in a nice ‘Cavern’ atmosphere as never seen before on TV or internet. All matches are broadcasted live in parts of China and worldwide on the internet. A ‘must see’ for table tennis fans and others. For more information see www.t2apac.com.
A total of 24 of world`s best table tennis players are competing in 4 teams of three men and three women among which 10 European top players (m/f). All matches can be viewed on YouTube. The first round of matches is on June 28-30.
Touted as the richest competition in today’s professional table-tennis calendar the players will be battling for an unprecedented prize purse of more than USD 1.75 million in the inaugural season which will be played across seven match rounds from end of this 28 June to December 2017. All 228 matches in Season 1 will be played and televised live before an invite-only studio audience from the T2CAVERN a purpose-built arena in the Asian location of Hollywood’s iconic Pinewood Studios situated in Johor Malaysia.
The four Team Captains
- JIANG Jialiang a former two-time world champion from China dominated the sport in the 1980s winning multiple medals at the World Championships World Cup and Asian Championships.
- Jörgen PERSSON was a former world champion and seven-time Olympian who represented Sweden in every Olympic Games when table tennis was introduced into the Olympic program in 1988 until 2012.
- Jörg ROSSKOPF currently the German men’s national coach won the silver medal in the men’s doubles at the 1992 Olympic Games and the bronze medal in the men’s singles at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
- Michael MAZE from Denmark was a bronze medal winner at the 2004 Olympic Games in the men’s doubles and widely considered to be one of the best defensive lobbers in the world.
Team Jörgen PERSSON
Mattias KARLSSON Sweden
Jun MIZUTANI Japan
JOO Se-Hyuk Korea
DING Ning China
Suthasini SAWETTABUT Thailand
Bernadette SZÕCS Romania
Team Michael MAZE
Timo BOLL Germany
FENG Tianwei Singapore
Aleksandr SHIBAEV Russia
Hina HIYATA Japan
CHEN Chien-An Taiwan
YANG Haenun Korea
Team JIANG Jialiang
Vladimir SAMSONOV Belarus
WU Yang China
Tomokazu HARIMOTO Japan
JEON Jihee Korea
CHUANG Chih-Yuan Taiwan
Matilda EKHOLM Sweden
Team ROSSKOPF
Dimitrij OVTCHAROV Germany
Paul DRINKHALL England
Elisabeta SAMARA Romania
Georgina POTA Hungary
CHENG I-Ching Taiwan
SHANG Kun China
