Qatar to host ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in December

Qatar will host the prestigious 2016 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals from December 8th to 11th at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena. The season-ending tournament is the most lucrative table tennis event on the globe, with only the top 16 men and women players from the 20 ITTF World Tour events securing their place in Doha. In addition to the singles competition, 8 men’s and women’s doubles pairs and 8 men’s and women’s under 21 players will also be making their way to Doha to compete in the event. The total prize money on offer is $500,000, the highest so far for the Grand Finals, with the singles winners taking home $60,000 each.Khalil al-Mohannadi, President of the Qatar Table Tennis Association and the ITTF Deputy President, said it has been a long term goal of his association to host the year-ending Grand Finals. Qatar annually hosts ITTF World Tour event in February or March.  Four top Chinese men and three women paddlers have confirmed their participation in the Grand Finals, which al-Mohannadi said was unprecedented as usually only one or two have taken part in the previous events. China has completely dominated the sport for long, sweeping World and Olympics titles. China’s victories at Rio Games this year, meant that the country now possesses 28 out of 32 golds awarded since table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988.“We are lucky to be attracting almost all the top players on the Tour this year to Doha. Normally, there are usually about one or two Chinese players participating in the Grand Finals but this time around the entire world’s top four in both men’s and women’s have confirmed their participation. This is a further proof of their satisfaction with our past events,” the QTTA head said yesterday.Olympic champion and world number one Ma Long of China, who held the top place of the 2016 World Tour standings will lead the men’s field this year. He secured two World Tour titles in Germany and Qatar this year, and will be aiming to defend his Grand Finals title he won in Lisbon last year to cap off a dream year.MA will be joined by his teammates Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin and zhang jike in Doha, with China securing the top four places in the World Tour Standings. Next on the list is Rio 2016 Olympic Games bronze medallist Jun Mizutani of Japan, who has won the Finals on two occasions and clinched three World Tour titles in 2016.Among women, Ding Ning of China topped the standings, winning two World Tour events in 2016. She is also the defending Grand Finals champion. World No.2 Liu Shiwen also of China and 2014 World Tour Finals champion Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa will also be present in Doha.Al-Mohannadi also revealed that the ITTF Star Awards Gala will also be held during the Grand Finals and he expected around 50 to 55 national federation president’s to be present on the occasion. “We appreciate the tremendous support of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) for this event which is happening in Qatar for the first time. We are probably going to be having the largest number of high-profile delegates in the event’s history as almost all the top ITTF officials have indicated their interest. All hands are on deck to ensure a very successful event,” he added.Qatar is no stranger to hosting top level table tennis events, having organised the ITTF World Tour Qatar Open (Super Series since 1997) and the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships in 2004.The ITTF World Tour is categorised into three tiers (highest first): Super Series (6 events), Major Series (6 events), and Challenge Series (8 events).