ITTF Confirms 12 Host Cities for 2019 ITTF World Tour
April 6, 2018
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has confirmed the 12 host cities for the 2019 ITTF World Tour.
The ITTF World Tour sees highest level professional tour for table tennis athletes around the world, and is split into two tiers, six ITTF World Tour Platinum events (top tier) and six ITTF World Tour events.
The six ITTF World Tour Platinum events will have higher prize money, and be of a higher level of presentation.
ITTF Head of World Tour Vicky Eleftheriade stated: “The ITTF World Tour has grown from strength to strength over the past few years, especially after the rebranding in 2017, and with the support from our title sponsor Seamaster. We are pleased to see more interest in the World Tour from hosts and other partners each year, and we will continue to push the tour forward to ensure growth in terms of popularity and commercially.”
The 12 host cities were chosen out of 16 bidding cities, with Japan upgrading from a regular event in 2018 to a Platinum event in 2019 in Sapporo in the lead up to Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The six cities that have won the hosting rights for the 2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum events are:
Doha (QAT) : 26 – 31 Mar 2019
Shenzhen (CHN) : 28 May – 2 Jun 2019
Sapporo (JPN) : 12 – 16 Jun 2019
Geelong (AUS) : 09 – 14 Jul 2019
Bremen (GER) : 08 – 13 Oct 2019
Linz (AUT) : 12 – 17 Nov 2019
The six host cities for the ITTF World Tour events are:
Budapest (HUN) : 22 – 27 Jan 2019
Hong Kong (HKG) : 04 – 09 Jun 2019
TBC (KOR) : 02 – 07 Jul 2019
Panagyurishte (BUL) : 13 – 18 Aug 2019
Olomouc (CZE) : 20 – 25 Aug 2019
Stockholm (SWE) : 01 – 06 Oct 2019