$300,000 up for grabs at 2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum Qatar Open

World No.2 Xu Xin and No.3 Lin Gaoyuan of China will join Japanese star Tomokazu Harimoto and German legend Timo Boll to battle for top honours at this week’s Qatar Open where a staggering overall prize bag of $300,000 is up for grabs.

The hugely popular ITTF World Tour Platinum leg, which will be held at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena, begins today.

Harimoto, the world No.4, and No.5 Boll have featured at this event in Doha in previous years.

World No.6 Brazil’s Hugo Calderano, 22, will also be part of the Doha field where he won the title last year.

The first round of men’s and women’s singles starts today at 10:00 am while the second round matches starts at 6:00pm, it was announced.

Khalil Al Mohannadi, President of the Qatar and Arab Table Tennis Federations, was joined by ITTF CEO Steve Dainton in announcing the details of the March 26-31 event.

Al Mohannadi, Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), said the latest edition of Qatar Open ‘is a dress rehearsal for the Silver Jubilee of the tournament in 2020’.

The tournament was first played in 1994.

“We have come a long way since then,” Al Mohannadi, the First Vice-President of the Asian body and ITTF, said.

“We always look forward to this tournament and aim to conduct it at the highest level possible,” Al Mohannadi said.

“We have the experience in the federation to manage an event that is truly world-class. I am happy that we have a professional team where everyone knows their duties well,” he said.

“This edition will witness a number of changes. We have moved the accommodation and entertainment to the highest level by providing the maximum comfort to the players competing at our event at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, a high quality hotel,” he said.

“Thankfully, in Qatar we are lucky to have sports facilities such as the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena. There is a study to move next year to the Lusail Hall with the number of countries in the next edition increasing to 60 countries,” Al Mohannadi said while confirming players from 51 countries will be seen in action this week.

ITTF CEO Dainton said: “Our work is going on aggressively to develop the game around the world. The road is long but the key goal is to move forward especially on the technical level and increase the scope of competition that is not limited to one country only.”

“We do not want our players to be from just one country, but we look forward to diversity,” Dainton said in reference to Chinese domination of the sport.

“We saw last year Brazilian Hugo Calderano take the spotlight by winning the Qatar Open,” he added.

“Calderano is the product of Brazil’s 2014 Olympics. We want to see more stars like him so that we can have rivals to compete with China and surpass them if possible,” he said.

Bruce Burton, Vice President of the ITTF who is in charge of the referee development, praised Qatar for hosting a three-day ITTF Referees Meeting.

“We had the honour of organising this meeting to discuss the referees’ preparations for the Olympics and the World Cup. This is the third meeting for us after a meeting in Malaysia and then in Malaysia,” Burton said.

Burton said the idea of ​​holding the meeting before the tournament was welcomed by Al Mohannadi.

“I think that Qatar has reached a wonderful level which is difficult for any city in the world to offer the same degree,” he added.