ITTF Pro Tour 2008

The ITTF Pro Tour started in 1996 as world table tennis took a giant leap forward. Here's what happened in 2008.

ITTF Pro Tour Winner - Ma Long by courtesy of the ITTF

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) took a bold step in 1996 when they initiated a brand new premier competition ... one that was specifically designed to attract the best players in the world ...

The ITTF Pro Tour.

You can read all about it here.

But let's take a look at what happened in 2008 ...

The 2008 Schedule

The 2008 ITTF Pro-Tour consisted of 14 international tournaments leading up to the Grand Finals held in Macao, China.

Although the ITTF Pro-Tour consists of men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles and women's doubles, I'll be concentrating on the main event ... the men's singles.

So what were the tournaments which made up the ITTF Pro Tour in 2008? ...

DATES	ITTF Pro Tour Events 2008	MS WINNERS
15-19 Jan	Slovenian Open (Velenje)	Vladimir Samsonov
13-16 Mar	Kuwait Open (Kuwait City)	Vladimir Samsonov
18-22 Mar	ERKE Qatar Open (Doha)	Ma Lin
17-20 Apr	Brazil Open (Belo Horizonte)	Jiang Tianyi
23-27 Apr	Chile Open (Santiago)	Ryu Seung Min
14-18 May	VW China Open (ChangChun)	Wang Hao
21-25 May	VW Open - Japan (Yokohama)	Ma Lin
22-25 May	STAG Belarus Open (Minsk)	Vladimir Samsonov
29 May- 1 Jun	VW Open - Korea (Daejeon)	Ma Long
5-8 Jun	VW Open - Singapore (Singapore)	Ma Long
11-14 Sep	Panasonic China Open (Shanghai)	Hao Shuai
29 Oct-2 Nov	ERKE Austrian Open (Salzburg)	Timo Boll
19-23 Nov	ERKE German Open (Berlin)	Timo Boll
26-30 Nov	Polish Open (Warsaw)	Timo Boll

Let's take a look at what prize money was on offer ...

Prize money

The prize money varied from tournament to tournament.

Some of the events were designated as premier events ... such as Kuwait and Qatar which both offered the largest total purse ... $211,600 ... with the men's and women's singles winners receiving $28,800 each.

The Pro Tour Grand Finals offered a total prize fund of $290,000 ... with the men's and women's singles winners collecting $38,000 each and the men's and women's doubles winners collecting $10,000.

So who qualified for the prestigious end of season grand finals?

The Grand Finals

The Grand Finals were held in Macao, China from 11-14 December 2008 and with all the Pro-Tour events completed, the players who had accumulated the most points in the men's singles were as follows:

Rank	Elig	Points	Events	Continents	Player
1		67200	6	1	MA Lin	CHN
	NE	62000	5	2	BOLL Timo	GER
2		59200	6	1	WANG Hao	CHN
3		56900	6	3	SAMSONOV Vladimir	BLR
4		54600	7	1	MA Long	CHN
5		31675	10	3	CHUANG Chih-Yuan	TPE
6		27300	7	1	CHEN Qi	CHN
7		25500	7	1	WANG Liqin	CHN
8		24800	10	3	JIANG Tianyi	HKG
9		23800	6	2	RYU Seung Min	KOR
10		18600	8	3	CHEUNG Yuk	HKG
11		17575	7	2	YOON Jae Young	KOR
12		17050	7	3	LI Ching	HKG
13		17000	7	2	MAZE Michael	DEN
	NE	15650	2	1	HAO Shuai	CHN
	NE	13650	5	1	ZHANG Jike	CHN
14		13450	7	2	OVTCHAROV Dimitrij	GER
15		13050	7	1	JOO Se Hyuk	KOR
16	Invitation place for a Home Association player				LEONG Kin Wa	MAC

But even though Timo Boll, Hao Shuai and Zhang Jike had accumulated sufficient Grand Prix points, they didn't meet the additional qualifying criteria of competing in at least six tournaments or playing on at least three continents.

So unfortunately they weren't eligible to take part in the prestigious end of season grand final.

So, here are the results of the ...

2008 ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals

Round One

Winner	Result	Loser
MA Lin	4-2	JOO Se Hyuk
CHEN Qi	4-0	RYU Seung Min
WANG Liqin	4-1	CHEUNG Yuk
MA Long	4-0	YOON Jae Young

SAMSONOV Vladimir	4-0	OVTCHAROV Dimitrij
JIANG Tianyi	4-2	LI Ching
CHUANG Chih-Yuan	4-0	LEONG Kin Wa
WANG Hao	4-0	MAZE Michael