The world’s best table tennis stars have gathered in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon in preparation for the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals which starts today 10 December and runs until 13 December 2015.
Finalists at the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour last year in Bangkok, Europe’s top player Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) and Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) are set to an early face-off in the first round of the Men’s Singles event. MIZUTANI claimed the title eventually in Bangkok, but at their latest encounter at the Liebherr 2015 ITTF Men’s World Cup, it was OVTCHAROV who prevailed.
"It’s a very hard draw for the both of us," shared OVTCHAROV after the draw ceremony. "We have played seven times in the last 12 months, of which I won four times, but he has won three out of the four times we played at major international tournaments, so the results is going to be very open."
The 27-year-old German added "Often the one with the better start wins, but the scores will be very close. I will of course try my very best to win this!"
Local hero Marcos FREITAS (POR) has the toughest draw out of everyone, with the European Championships runner up facing world number one and World Champion MA Long in the first round.
The fans could also expect a matchup between the reigning World Champion DING Ning and newly crowned 2015 Female Table Tennis Star LIU Shiwen in the Women’s Singles event. The duo last played internationally at the epic gold medal match at the 2015 World Championships, where DING overcame her injury in the decider to take her second World Championships title.
The GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour is the year-ending finale to the US$3,000,000 ITTF World Tour, whereby the top 16 singles and 8 doubles pairs qualified through collecting #Race2Lisbon points throughout the 2015 ITTF World Tour.
The GAC 2015 ITTF World Tour is split into three tiers (highest first): Super (6 events), Major (6 events), Challenge (11 events). The higher the series, the more prize money, world ranking points, Race to Lisbon points and higher quality of competition on offer.
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