The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Cup officially launched today at the Galaxy Arena, with the competition scheduled to last until 21 April.
A total of 96 world-class table tennis players are competing in the event – 48 each in the Men’s World Cup and Womens’ World Cup. Competitors hail from mainland China, Portugal, Australia, Japan, Egypt and elsewhere.
Among the competitors are current male and female World Cup title holders Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng. The world’s current top ranked male and female players Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha are also vying for trophies.
A press conference and drawing ceremony was held yesterday, with top seed Wang assigned to Group 1 where he will compete against Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko and South Korea’s An Jaehyun.
[See more: ITTF World Cup final and semi-final tickets ‘sell out in under three seconds’]
Meanwhile, Sun Yingsha will play against Chinese Taipei’s Chen Szu-yu and Hong Kong’s Zhu Chengzhu in Group 1.
The semi-finals of the contest are due to take place on 20 April from 6 pm, while the final is scheduled the following day from 7:30pm. Tickets for the games sold out almost as soon as they were made available online.
Response to the competition has been positive, with the organisers reporting that 4.3 million people tuned into the draw ceremony.
Macao is also scheduled to host another major table tennis event in 2025 as part of the National Games.
