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ITTF World Tour
The ITTF have revamped the ITTF World Tour with higher prize money for all players and improved organisation
By Martin Hughes
Owner and Editor
In 1996 the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) launched a brand new premier competition - The ITTF Pro Tour.
And in 2012, after 15 years of solid success, they took it to the next level and re-named it the ITTF World Tour.
And then in its 20th year, the ITTF announced that with effect from 2017 the ITTF World Tour would have a new logo, new branding and a new structure to better promote table tennis globally.
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So what was said at the unveiling in August 2016?
New Partners and New Conditions for 2017 World Tour
On the announcement, ITTF Marketing Director Steve Dainton said...
"In 2016, we worked hard to look at ways to push the World Tour product forward, with new partners and new conditions.
The desire to host events has dramatically increased and we are so pleased to see conditions such as prize money increasing as well.
We will now push forward to ensure events can grow both in terms of popularity and commercially so that over time we can showcase international table tennis more regularly throughout the year."
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In addition, the...
ITTF Announced 12 Host Cities for the 2017 World Tour
The ITTF also announced that from 2017 the World Tour would be split into two tiers, with six ITTF World Tour Platinum events, which is the new top tier of the World Tour, and six regular ITTF World Tour events.
And due to an unprecedented number of bids wanting to be part of this revamped ITTF World Tour, the six ITTF World Tour Platinum events had higher prize money, and a higher level of organisation, which ensured the attendance of the world's best players, resulting in more international exposure for the hosts.
The six cities that won the right to host a 2017 ITTF World Tour Platinum event were...
- Doha, Qatar: 23-26 February 2017
- Tokyo, Japan: 16-18 June 2017
- Chengdu, China: 22-25 June 2017
- Gold Coast, Australia: 29 June–2 July 2017
- Linz, Austria: 1-3 September 2017
- Magdeburg, Germany: 10-12 November 2017
And the regular ITTF World Tour events were...
- Budapest, Hungary: 19-22 January 2017
- New Delhi, India: 16-19 February 2017
- Incheon, South Korea: 20-23 April 2017
- Olomouc, Czech Republic: 24-27 August 2017
- Panagyurishte, Bulgaria: 7-10 September 2017
- Stockholm, Sweden: 16-19 November 2017
Australia and Austria moved up to the top World Tour tier for the first time, after successfully hosting regular lower-tiered World Tour events.
And India joined the ITTF World Tour for the first time, with New Delhi hosting the breakthrough event in February 2017.
The 12 events all offered World Tour Standings points, which were used to determine the top 16 players that qualified for the World Tour Grand Finals, which was held from 14-17 December 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Subsequent years have also followed this new format.
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So how does the ITTF World Tour now work?
Points mean prizes
12 prestigious events all offer World Tour Standings points which are used to determine the top 16 players that qualify for the lucrative World Tour Grand Finals.
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So let's take a look at...
The Format
Each World Tour tournament holds events for...
- Men's singles
- Women's singles
- Men's doubles
- Women's doubles
- Mixed doubles
The main draw is limited to 32 players for singles and 16 pairs for doubles.
In the Men's and Women's singles all matches are played best of 7 games in all stages of the competition, whilst in the doubles, matches are played best of 5 games in all stages of the competition.
The events are played over 4 days whilst the qualification events are played over a minimum of 2 days.
You can get all the details of the ITTF World Tour events and the Grand Finals here.
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