ITTF World Tour Grand Finals

The ITTF World Tour Grand Finals, formerly named ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, was an annual table tennis tournament sanctioned by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) at the end of the year. The tournament included seven events: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, mixed doubles (new in 2018), U21 men's and women's singles. Players who accumulated the largest number of points on the ITTF World Tour were qualified for the event, and competing for total prize money of US$1,000,000, the biggest total prize money event in the ITTF calendar.[1]

Since 2021, the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals has been effectively replaced by the newly created WTT Cup Finals, which was renamed to WTT Finals in 2023.

Qualification сriteria

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Men's and women's singles

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  • Attend at least 5 events at ITTF World Tour.[2]
  • The top 15 men and 15 women who have accumulated the largest number of points on World Tour standing are invited.
  • The ITTF will invite one player from to the host association provided that they played at least 5 events at ITTF World Tour.
  • If a player from the host association is already among the 15 invited players or no player from the host association had attended at least 5 events at ITTF World Tour, then the 16th player in order will be invited.

Men's and women's doubles

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  • The same pair has to play at least 4 events at ITTF World Tour.[2]
  • The top 7 men's and 7 women's doubles pairs who have accumulated the largest number of points, as a pair, on World Tour standing are invited.
  • The ITTF will invite one pair from the host association given that the pair played at least 4 events at ITTF World Tour.
  • If a pair from the host association is already among the 7 invited pairs or no pair from the host association had attended at least 4 events at ITTF World Tour, then the 8th pair in order will be invited.
  • If a player appears in two or more double pairs, only the highest double will be qualified.

Mixed doubles

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  • The same pair has to play at least 2 events at ITTF World Tour.[2]
  • The top 7 doubles who have accumulated the largest number of points, as a pair, on World Tour standing are invited.
  • The ITTF will invite one pair from the host association given that the pair played at least 2 events at ITTF World Tour.
  • If a pair from the host association is already among the 7 invited pairs or no pair from the host association had attended at least 2 events at ITTF World Tour, then the 8th pair in order will be invited.
  • If a player appears in two or more double pairs, only the highest double will be qualified.

U21 men's and women's singles

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  • Attend 4 events in at least 2 continents at ITTF World Tour.
  • The top 8 on the World Tour standing are qualified.

If more than 1 player or pair have the same ranking on the World Tour standing when they compete for the last spot, the spot belongs to the player or the pair with higher ITTF world ranking.

Playing systems

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All the matches in World Tour Grand Finals are played best of 7 games with the exception of the first round of men's doubles and women's doubles, which are played as a best of 5 games.[3]

Seeding of the players and pairs are determined by the final order of the World Tour standings.[4]

Men's and women's singles, doubles

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16 players (or 8 pairs in doubles) advance towards next round under a knockout system. The top 8 players (or the top 4 pairs in doubles) on the World Tour standing will avoid playing each other in the first round.

U21 men's and women's singles

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8 players are at first separated into two groups. After playing a round-robin, the top 2 players in each group advance towards a knockout.

Winners

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  • List of winners at ITTF World Tour Grand Finals:[5]
Location Year Men's Singles Women's Singles Men's Doubles Women's Doubles Mixed Doubles
  Tianjin 1996   Kong Linghui   Deng Yaping   Wang Liqin
  Yan Sen
  Deng Yaping
  Yang Ying
  Hong Kong 1997   Vladimir Samsonov   Li Ju   Kong Linghui
  Liu Guoliang
  Li Ju
  Wang Nan
  Paris 1998   Wang Liqin   Wang Nan   Wang Liqin
  Yan Sen
  Sydney 1999   Liu Guozheng   Chen Jing   Kong Linghui
  Ma Lin
  Kobe 2000   Wang Liqin   Zhang Yining   Wang Liqin
  Yan Sen
  Sun Jin
  Yang Ying
  Hainan 2001   Ma Lin   Wang Nan   Kim Taek-Soo
  Oh Sang-Eun
  Lee Eun-Sil
  Ryu Ji-Hae
  Stockholm 2002   Chuang Chih-yuan   Zhang Yining   Kong Linghui
  Ma Lin
  Li Jia
  Niu Jianfeng
  Guangzhou 2003   Wang Hao   Niu Jianfeng   Ma Lin
  Chen Qi
  Guo Yue
  Niu Jianfeng
  Beijing 2004   Wang Liqin   Guo Yue   Wang Nan
  Zhang Yining
  Fuzhou 2005   Timo Boll   Zhang Yining   Timo Boll
  Christian Süß
  Gao Jun
  Shen Yanfei
  Hong Kong 2006   Wang Hao   Hao Shuai
  Ma Long
  Wang Nan
  Zhang Yining
  Beijing 2007   Ma Lin   Li Xiaoxia   Wang Liqin
  Chen Qi
  Guo Yue
  Li Xiaoxia
  Macau 2008   Ma Long   Guo Yan   Gao Ning
  Yang Zi
  Li Jiawei
  Sun Beibei
  Macau 2009   Timo Boll
  Christian Süß
  Ding Ning
  Liu Shiwen
  Seoul 2010   Jun Mizutani   Feng Tianwei   Jiang Tianyi
  Tang Peng
  Kim Kyung-Ah
  Park Mi-Young
  London 2011   Ma Long   Liu Shiwen   Ma Lin
  Zhang Jike
  Guo Yue
  Li Xiaoxia
  Hangzhou 2012   Xu Xin   Gao Ning
  Li Hu
  Feng Tianwei
  Yu Mengyu
  Dubai 2013   Ding Ning
  Li Xiaoxia
  Bangkok 2014   Jun Mizutani   Kasumi Ishikawa   Cho Eon-Rae
  Seo Hyun-Deok
  Miu Hirano
  Mima Ito
  Lisbon 2015   Ma Long   Ding Ning   Masataka Morizono
  Yuya Oshima
  Ding Ning
  Zhu Yuling
  Doha 2016   Zhu Yuling   Jung Young-sik
  Lee Sang-su
  Yui Hamamoto
  Hina Hayata
  Astana 2017   Fan Zhendong   Chen Meng   Masataka Morizono
  Yuya Oshima
  Chen Meng
  Zhu Yuling
  Incheon 2018   Tomokazu Harimoto   Jang Woo-jin
  Lim Jonghoon
  Mima Ito
  Hina Hayata
  Wong Chun Ting
  Doo Hoi Kem
  Zhengzhou 2019   Fan Zhendong   Fan Zhendong
  Xu Xin
  Miyuu Kihara
  Miyu Nagasaki
  Xu Xin
  Liu Shiwen
  Zhengzhou 2020[6]   Ma Long

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "I T T F prize_money". www.ittf.com.
  2. ^ a b c "Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals Qualification Criteria" (PDF) (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-31.
  3. ^ "Playing System for the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals" (PDF). ittf.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-12-04.
  4. ^ "Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals Qualification Criteria" (PDF). ittf.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-12-01.
  5. ^ "ITTF Statistics". ittf.com. Archived from the original on 2010-08-14. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  6. ^ "Bank of Communications 2020 ITTF Finals: Ma Long and Chen Meng make history". 22 November 2020. Archived from the original on 22 November 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
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