Other Events | 7 Apr 2015

MA Long top seed at 2015 World Championships

The seeding list for the Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships which will be held in Suzhou, China from 26 April to 3 May 2015, has been released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). 310 male and 238 female players from 100 National

The seeding list for the Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships which will be held in Suzhou, China from 26 April to 3 May 2015, has been released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). 310 male and 238 female players from 100 National Federations will be heading to Suzhou in the hope of being crowned the World Table Tennis Champion in front of a capacity crowd.

The seeding, based on ITTF April’s world ranking, sees the Chinese duo of MA Long and DING Ning named as No.1 seeds for the men’s and women’s singles event respectively. DING will be looking to add a second World Championship title to her already impressive medal collection, and MA will be desperately seeking his first singles World Championships crown to add to his remarkable haul of 19 ITTF World Tour titles amongst other international titles.

Defending champions from two years ago in Paris ZHANG Jike (CHN) and LI Xiaoxia (CHN) will be both seeded three behind teammates XU Xin and LIU Shiwen.

Finalists from the GAC Group 2014 World Tour Grand Finals Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) and Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) head to Suzhou as the number 5th and 6th seeds hoping to ruin the Chinese party and become the first non Chinese singles champion since Werner SCHLAGER (AUT) in 2003.The challengers to China’s supremacy in the women’s side will be FENG Tianwei (SIN) and Kasumi ISHIKAWA (JPN) who will be the number 4th and 5th seed respectively.

ISHIKAWA may be the highest ranked Japanese women, but the top players will be all hoping to avoid the 14-year-old sensation Mima ITO (JPN), who will be seeded 13 in Suzhou after shocking the world by winning the German Open last month.

While most eyes will be on the top seeds at the 53rd World Table Tennis Championships, there are also some interesting stories away from the table tennis superstars. None more interesting than Jean-Michel SAIVE (BEL), who will be competing in an unmatched 24th World Championships, with his first Championships being back in 1983 as a 13-year-old.

The draw for the top 16 seeds will take place at 14:30 local time on 25 April 2015 at the Suzhou Cultural and Art Center.

Qualification to join the top 64 seeded players, plus 32 who gain direct entry in the 128 strong main draw begins the next day, 26 April, in the Suzhou International Expo Centre, with the main draw beginning on 28 April 2015.

In addition to the singles titles, the world’s best table tennis players will also be fighting for the men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles titles in China.