The International Table Tennis has announced the tournaments that will make up the upcoming GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour.
In 2014, there will be 21 World Tour events in 21 different countries, which portrays just how global the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour truly is.
The world's best players' main goal on the tour is to gain enough points from these 21 events to qualify for the US1 million-dollar World Tour Grand Finals to be held at the end of the year.
"The ITTF is very happy about the high level of interest to be on the tour and the number of new associations that applied to host a GAC Group 2014 World Tour event," stated ITTF CEO Judit Farago. "With the varied locations across the world, 2014's tour gives an opportunity to every professional table tennis player to play on the world stage. The ITTF World Tour (previously called Pro Tour) is into its 19th year in 2014 and it is to our greatest satisfaction that it reaches out to all five continents."
The GAC Group 20014 World Tour is split up into 3 tiers, the highest being the Super Series, then the Major Series and Challenge Series. The higher the tier, the more prize money and ranking points will be on offer.
In 2014, the Korea Open has been promoted to the prestigious Super Series circuit, joining the same countries that hosted a Super Series in 2013, Kuwait, Qatar, Germany, Japan and China, to form the top tier of the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour.
The Major Series, which is the next highest tier, will see the world's best table tennis players head to Europe's traditional Open events: Sweden, Russia, Spain and the Czech Republic.
Australia, Philippines, Nigeria, Chile and Argentina are the new faces in the Challenge Series, which shows the true extent of the growth and demand of table tennis across the globe. Philippines, Nigeria and Argentina will make their debut on the tour next year, Australia was last time a host in 1999, while Hungary, Belgium and Chile come back after one year of absence to the Challenge Series. Joining these new destinations experienced organizers like Croatia, Belarus, Brazil, Morocco.
For more information contact: ITTF Promotion Manager, Matt Pound, at mpound@ittf.com
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