Image source: ITTF official WeChat account.
China News Service, December 17th. The 2020 China Table Tennis Club Super League will be held in Changlong, Guangzhou from December 21 to 29.
Six athletes from foreign associations will participate in this season's Table Tennis Super League. Among them, Chinese Taipei player Lin Yunru will join Shandong Weiqiao, and the other five girls from foreign associations will form the "ITTF World Professional Team."
Although it is not the first time for a foreign association player to participate in the Ping Pong Super League, it is the first time to form a team alone. This is also the result of the joint efforts of the ITTF and the Chinese Table Tennis Association.
After the WTT Macau match, these 6 foreign association athletes followed the Chinese team to the Chinese table tennis training base in Chengdu.
The five female athletes of the "ITTF World Professional Team" are: Puerto Rico's Diaz, America's Zhang An, South Korea's Tian Zhixi, Hong Kong's Du Kaixian and Chinese Taipei star Zheng Yijing.
Chinese Taipei player Lin Yunru is the only male athlete among the members of this foreign association. He said that this is his first training in such a large training ground and the atmosphere is very good.
He has been following the training plan of the Chinese table tennis team for the past half month. The training intensity is very high. Although tired, he is very happy.
Lin Yunru, who is not good at words, also said that being able to join Shandong Weiqiao Club during the Table Tennis Super League feels both pressure and motivation.
ITTF CEO Steve Denton said that the successful formation of the "ITTF World Professional Team" demonstrates the good communication and exchanges between the ITTF and the Chinese Table Tennis Association. It also shows the world that when the epidemic is restored, How many possibilities are there for the world's high-level players in table tennis?
According to the epidemic prevention requirements, the 2020 Table Tennis Super League will still implement closed-loop management, which will be fully closed.
The competition adopts the Tokyo Olympic Games format, and there will be 9 clubs each for men and women who will compete in a two-stage competition system in Guangzhou.
The first stage will be held from December 21st to 26th for men's and women's singles round robin competition.
The top four teams entered the second elimination round on the 27th-29th, and finally decided the men and women champions of the 2020 Table Tennis Super League.
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