Final stop to qualify for Grand Finals - On the sport. Be part of it

The Austrian Open, the 12th and final stop of this year’s ITTF World Tour starting today, offers four more spots for players to qualify for the World Tour Grand Finals.

The the top 12 qualification positions for Zhengzhou have already been filled in both the men’s and women’s singles events at the World Tour Grand Finals to be held from 12th – 15th December in Zhengzhou, China.

The remaining four places available per category, would see a number of fringe players out to impress in Austria in order to secure their tickets.

Alongside the drama of the race to Zhengzhou, the Austrian Open also promises to boast a series of eye-catching showdowns, featuring several of the biggest names in international table tennis.

Returning to the world number one ranking earlier this month, China’s Fan Zhendong is top seed for the men’s singles event in Linz but will face stiff opposition if he is to make it back-to-back singles titles on the Tour.

If the German Open champion successfully negotiates his opening round encounter against Japanese Mizuki Oikawa , Zhendong could face a possible scenario which would see him need to topple the likes of Korean Jang Woojin and Taiwanese Lin Yun-Ju. German duo of Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov together with the Japanese pair of Jun Mizutani and and Tomokazu Harimotoare all his potential semi-final opponents.

Boll and Mizutani’s are in the running for a place in the Tour Finals, currently positioned 15th and 13th respectively. They would qualify for the Finals, if they match the progress of the chasing pack including Woojin, Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting and Japan’s Koki Niwa.

However, if any two of the three chasers reach the quarter-finals and Boll or Mizutani succumb to a first round one exit then qualification will elude them.

The other side of the draw could produce a spectacular quarter-final contest between two of China’s finest with 2017 Austrian Open champion Lin Gaoyuan lined up to meet 2018 champion Liang Jingkun.

Brazilian Hugo Calderano could potentially lie in wait for the semi-finals. The Brazilian star will need to negotiate an intriguing first round contest against American Kanak Jha after the American hot shot sealed his first ever main draw appearance at an ITTF World Tour Platinum event, just one week after leading the USA men’s team to an historic quarter-final at the Team World Cup in Tokyo.

Tokyo, Team’s World Cup Group – Match 2 , ZEN-NOH 2019 ITTF Team World Cup, Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, Tokyo 2019/11/06.

The race for the remaining women’s singles places in the women’s competition for the Tour Grand Finals also takes centre-stage in Linz.

Chinas’ He Zhuojia Japan’s Hitomi Sato, Taiwanese Cheng I-Ching and Korean Jeon Jihee are currently in pole position to claim qualification. Early defeats to any of them could pave the way open for the likes of Gu Yuting of China, Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong and Suh Hyowon of Korea.

Japanese teenage star Mima Ito, has been drawn in the lower half of the draw. Ito could be presented with a tricky quarter-final encounter against the experienced Cheng I-Ching – who eliminated Ito from last year’s World Tour Grand Finals in Incheon – while 2019 World and Women’s World Cup champion Liu Shiwen of China is also a potential semi-final opponent for the 19-year-old Ito.

The women;s competition could also see a repeat clash between top seed Zhu Yuling of China and Singapore’s Feng Tianwei, one month on from their intense semi-final duel in Chengdu.

Fresh from their men’s doubles heroics over China at the Team World Cup in Tokyo, the Korean pair of Jeoung Youngsik-Lee Sangsu are the top-seeded pair. The pair could cross swords with the likes of Timo Boll- Patrick Franziska of Germany or Fan Zhendong-Wang Chuqin of China in the semi-finals.

In the women’s doubles, the host nation’s Sofia Polcanova will play alongside Bernadette Szocs of Romania. The competition’s other mixed nationality pairing of Barbora Balazova of Slovakia and Hana Matelova of the Czech Republic would be their likeliest opponents in the quarter-finals.

There is plenty of interest and intensity in the mixed doubles competition following news that the four semi-finalists in Zhengzhou qualify directly to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Lining up in Linz are some blockbuster pairings including Wong Chun Ting-Doo Hoi Kem (Hkg, Mima Ito-Jun Mizutani (Jpn) and Lin Yun-Ju-Cheng I-Ching (Tpe).