Other Events | 8 Oct 2019

German Open: The 20th edition commences in Bremen

Photo: Courtesy Czech Table Tennis Association

2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum, German Open

The 20th edition of German Open – 2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum, German Open – commenced today, October 8th, by qualification stage. It is the seventh time since 1999 that the city of Bremen is hosting this event, which main draw starts this Thursday, October 10th, with 32 players in both, Men’s and Women’s singles, as well as 16 pairs in doubles events.

The road to the 2019 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals reaches its penultimate stage in Bremen, ahead of final World Tour event in Austria (Linz, November 14-17th, also Platinum). The Grand Finals will be held in the city of Zhengzhou, placed in the central part of China, between 12–15 December. In order to qualify, players need to finish among the top 16 in the men's and women's competitions and among the top 8 in men's, women's and mixed doubles categories.

Fifteen singles players will qualify according to the final standings, while one to be chosen by host country. Each player must play at least five tournaments within year to be considered in general placement and it is an important fact for German star Timo BOLL, who enters German Open as no. 15 in current standings, but with only four participations so far.

Platinum tournaments offers 500 points for the winner (30,000 US$ prize money), 300 for finalist (15,000 US$), 200 for semi-finalist (7,500 US$), 100 for quarter-finalist (3,750 US$) … Total prize money is: 270,000 US$.

The 2018 runner-up, China’s XU Xin, who leads in the Men’s Singles race with 1774 points, is the top seed in Bremen, followed by his compatriots FAN Zhendong (no. 2) and LIN Gaoyuan (no. 3). Four Europeans are placed among 16 seeds: Timo BOLL (Germany, no. 6), Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (Germany, no. 10), Patrick FRANZISKA (Germany, no. 13), 16 Liam PITCHFORD (England, no. 16).

MA Long, who will not participate in Bremen, is record holder of this tournament with five titles on his count. Timo BOLL is four-time winner, while his team mate in the German National Team, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, was crowned champion three times (last time in 2017).

Regarding 2019 ITTF World Tour, XU Xin won three out of 10 tournaments so far (Japan, Korea, Australia), all three in a row. Actual World and Olympic champion MA Long has two titles (Qatar, China), as well as LIN Gaoyuan (Hungary, Hong Kong). Last three tournaments were taken by Tomokazu HARIMOTO (Bulgaria), LIN Yun-Ju (Czech Republic) and WANG Chuqin (Sweden).

CHEN Meng is four-time Women’s Singles winner this season (Hungary, China, Korea and Sweden) and she leads in race to Zhengzhou with 1550 points, followed by SUN Yingsha (CHN, 1382), WANG Manyu (CHN, 1082), Mima ITO (JPN, 885), LIU Shiwen (CHN, 810), DING Ning (CHN, 806)…

Mima ITO became the youngest ever female singles champion on the World Tour in 2015, winning German Open at the age of 14 years and 152 days old.

Men’s Singles Seeding list: XU Xin (no. 1, China), FAN Zhendong (no. 2, China), LIN Gaoyuan (no. 3, China)… Timo BOLL (no. 6, Germany), Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (no. 10, Germany), Patrick FRANZISKA (no. 13, Germany), 16 Liam PITCHFORD (no. 16, England).

Women’s Singles Seeding list: CHEN Meng (no. 1, China), WANG Manyu (no. 2, China), SUN Yingsha (no. 3, China), Mima ITO (no. 4, Japan) … Sofia POLCANOVA (no. 12, Austria), Bernadette SZOCS (no. 13, Romania), Petrissa SOLJA (no. 15, Germany), HAN Ying (no. 16, Germany).

Current Men’s Singles Standings: 1 XU Xin (CHN) 1744, 2 MA Long (CHN) 1425, 3 LIN Gaoyuan (CHN) 1375, 4 Tomokazu HARIMOTO (JPN) 780, 5 WANG Chuqin (CHN) 769, 6 LIN Yun-Ju (TPE) 741, 7 LIANG Jingkun (CHN) 523, 8 FAN Zhendong (CHN) 507, 9 Mattias FALCK (SWE) 388, 10 Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) 387, 11 Patrick FRANZISKA (GER) 371, 12 Hugo CALDERANO (BRA) 369, 13 Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) 327, 14 Jang WOOJIN (KOR) 273, 15 Timo BOLL (GER) 244, 16 WONG Chun Ting (HKG) 238.

Current Women’s Singles Standings: 1 CHEN Meng (CHN) 1550, 2 SUN Yingsha (CHN) 1382, 3 WANG Manyu (CHN) 1082, 4 Mima ITO (JPN) 885, 5 LIU Shiwen (CHN) 810, 6 DING Ning (CHN) 806, 7 CHEN Xingtong (CHN) 755, 8 Miu HIRANO (JPN) 586, 9 Kasumi ISHIKAWA (JPN) 474, 10 ZHU Yuling (CHN) 414, 11 WANG Yidi (CHN) 399, 12 HE Zhoujia (CHN) 338, 13 Hitomi SATO (JPN) 287, 14 FENG Tianwei (SGP) 279, 15 CHENG I-Ching (TPE) 270, 16 JEON Jihee (KOR) 242.