The ITTF Star Awards are annual awards organized by the International Table Tennis Federation to recognize professional table tennis players and coaches. The awards were established in 2013. [1]
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net. Except for the initial serve, the rules are generally as follows: players must allow a ball played toward them to bounce once on their side of the table and must return it so that it bounces on the opposite side at least once. A point is scored when a player fails to return the ball within the rules. Play is fast and demands quick reactions. Spinning the ball alters its trajectory and limits an opponent's options, giving the hitter a great advantage.
Jörg Roßkopf is a former professional German table tennis player who is currently the head coach of the German Men's National Table Tennis Team. As a player, he won the title in Men's Doubles at the 1989 World Table Tennis Championships and the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, with Steffen Fetzner as his partner. In men's singles, he won the bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the gold medal at the Table Tennis World Cup in 1998. As a coach, he was awarded the ITTF Star Coach award in 2017.
Mouma Das is an Indian table tennis player. Born and brought up in Kolkata, West Bengal, she has represented India in international events since the early 2000s. Das has won multiple medals at the Commonwealth Games including a gold in the Women's Team Competition in 2018. She was awarded the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting honour in 2013 for her contributions to the sport.
Vladimir Samsonov or Uładzimir Samsonaŭ is a Belarusian former professional table tennis player. He is known in China as the "Tai Chi Master" because of his superb all-around style, both offensive and defensive. Samsonov competed at six consecutive Olympics between 1996 and 2016, placing fourth individually in 2016, in addition to equal fifth in 1996 and 2000.
Wang Yuegu is a retired Chinese-born Singaporean table tennis player who was ranked among the top ten players in the world. Wang made her inaugural appearance as a Singaporean table tennis player on the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Pro Tour in June 2005 at the Volkswagen Korean Open in Suncheon, South Korea, where she and Sun Beibei took the silver medal in the women's doubles. On 24 September 2006, Wang achieved her first gold medal on the Pro Tour at the Japan Open in Yokohama. She repeated the feat against her compatriot Li Jiawei on 12 November at the ITTF Pro Tour German Open in Bayreuth. In June 2007, Wang helped Singapore sweep the women's team, women's doubles and mixed doubles gold trophies at the 17th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships in Jaipur.
Dimitrij Ovtcharov or Dmytro Ovtcharov is a Ukrainian-born German table tennis player. His father Mikhail, a Soviet table tennis champion in 1982, moved his family to Germany shortly after Dimitrij was born.
Ma Long is a Chinese table tennis player and the reigning Olympic singles champion. Widely regarded as the greatest table tennis player of all time, he is the first male player to complete a career Double Grand Slam as the Olympic gold medalist in men's singles in 2016 and 2020. He held the ranking of number 1 for a total of 64 months, the most by any male in the history of table tennis. He is also champion in World Championships in men's singles in 2015, 2017 and 2019. His records led the International Table Tennis Federation to nickname him as "The Dictator" and "The Dragon". Since 2014, he has been the captain of the Chinese national table tennis men's team.
Liu Shiwen is a Chinese table tennis player. She is a five-time World Cup champion, one-time World Champion, three-time ITTF World Tour Grand Finals champion and four-time Asian Cup champion. She is known to be one of the fastest players in the world.
Ding Ning is a former Chinese table tennis player. She was the winner of women's singles in the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships.
Zhu Yuling is a Chinese table tennis player.
Mima Ito is a Japanese table tennis player. She won a bronze medal in the Women's Team event at the 2016 Summer Olympics when she was 15 years old. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal with her partner Jun Mizutani in the Mixed Doubles event which made its debut, a bronze medal in the Women's singles, and a silver medal in the Women's Team event.
Miu Hirano is a Japanese table tennis player. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Women's team, winning a silver medal.
Fan Zhendong is a Chinese professional table tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 1 for men's singles by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). After joining the Chinese National Table Tennis Team in 2012 as the youngest member of the team, he went on to become the youngest ITTF World Tour Champion and the youngest World Table Tennis Champion. He achieved the top spot in the world rankings after holding position No. 2 for 29 consecutive months, starting from November 2015.
Adriana Yamila Díaz González is a Puerto Rican table tennis player. As of August 2019 she was ranked 3 and 30 in the Table Tennis World Ranking according to the International Table Tennis Federation. Díaz is sponsored by Butterfly and Adidas. Adriana is the sister of the table tennis player, Melanie Díaz, and cousin of Brian Afanador.
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran is an Indian table tennis player, currently ranked at 38 in the world as of August 2021. He was a member of the Indian team that took the bronze in the 2011 Junior World Championships.
The 2017 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals was the final competition of the 2017 ITTF World Tour, the International Table Tennis Federation's professional table tennis world tour. It was the 22nd edition of the competition, and was held from 14–17 December in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Tomokazu Harimoto is a Japanese table tennis player. In 2018, he won the 2018 World Junior Singles and Team Title at the ITTF 2018 World Junior Championship for Japan. The previous players to win the title were Kenta Matsudaira, Koki Niwa, and Jun Mizutani (Teams).
Wang Chuqin is a Chinese table tennis player. He won Gold in the men's singles and mixed team events at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The following is the qualification system and list of qualified nations for the table tennis at the 2019 Pan American Games competition.
The 2019 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals was the final competition of the 2019 ITTF World Tour, the International Table Tennis Federation's professional table tennis world tour. It was the 24th edition of the competition, and was held from 12–15 December in Zhengzhou, China.
