Star Chinese table tennis players Fan Zhendong, Ma Long and Chen Meng will no longer be playing at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions Macao tournament, which is scheduled to take place at the Macao East Asian Games Dome on 9 and 15 September.
All three athletes competed at the Paris Olympics where they won medals for men and women’s singles and team events.
According to a WTT statement on Weibo, Chinese players Lin Shidong, Lin Gaoyuan and Lin Xingtong will be taking over from Fan, Ma and Chen. The competition will also feature a host of other star players, including current world number ones, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha.
[See more: Olympic table tennis stars will appear at the WTT Champions Macao tournament]
At a press conference that was held yesterday, more details about the upcoming tournament were revealed, with the organisers announcing that 64 of the top players worldwide, including 32 female and 32 male, will be competing in the respective singles divisions.
Players who are placed first in the upcoming tournament stand to win US$35,000 in prize money, as well as 1,000 ranking points. The prize pool is worth a total of US$800,000.
Tickets for the various matches will be available via various online platforms such as MacauTicket.com and mPay from 11am tomorrow, although they can also be bought at various MacauTicket outlets. Prices range from 300 patacas to 1,200 patacas. Macao ID card holders and concessionary card holders are also eligible for a discount of 20 percent and 30 percent respectively.
