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 is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of two, players take alternating turns returning a light, hollow ball over the table's net onto the opposing half of the court using small rackets until they fail to do so, which results in a point for the opponent. Play is fast, requiring quick reaction and constant attention, and is characterized by an emphasis on spin, which can affect the ball's trajectory more than in other ball sports.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national table tennis associations that use ITTF-approved sponge table tennis rackets. The role of the ITTF includes overseeing rules and regulations and seeking technological improvement for the sport of table tennis. The ITTF is responsible for the organization of numerous international competitions, including the World Table Tennis Championships.
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.
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 professional table tennis player, six-time Olympic champion, and three-time World Champion. He is the reigning World Cup singles champion. Widely regarded as the greatest table tennis player of all time, he is the first and only male player to complete a career Double Grand Slam as the Olympic gold medalist in men's singles in 2016 and 2020. He is also the first and only table tennis athlete to win 6 gold medals in summer Olympics — no other table tennis player has more than four. He holds the record for most Olympic gold medals won by a Chinese athlete.
The ITTF–ATTU Asian Cup is an annual table tennis competition held by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and the Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU). The first edition was held in 1983. The competition features men's and women's singles events, with 16 players qualifying to take part in each event, subject to a maximum of two players per association.
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.
Yu Mengyu is a retired Singaporean table tennis player. Born in Liaoning, China, Yu left China in 2006 at the age of 17 to join the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme. In the same year, Yu made her international debut for Singapore.
Mima Ito is a Japanese table tennis player. She won a bronze medal in the Women's Team event at the 2016 Summer Olympics at age 15. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal with her partner Jun Mizutani in the inaugural mixed doubles event, bronze in women's singles, and silver in the women's team event.
Fan Zhendong is a Chinese professional table tennis player. 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. In April 2018, he achieved the top spot in the world rankings after holding position No. 2 for 29 consecutive months, starting from November 2015. He won the Olympic gold medal in men's singles at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, becoming just the 6th male player to achieve a Grand Slam.
Adriana Yamila Díaz González is a Puerto Rican table tennis player. As of November 2022, she was ranked 3 and 11 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.
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 to 17 December in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Derek Tawiah Abrefa is a Ghanaian born table tennis player. He started playing table tennis when he was in Presbyterian Senior High School, Osu as a student and junior national champion. Derek being a junior ping pong player represented Ghana at the Africa Junior Championship in Alexandria, Egypt and the All African Games in Algiers, Algeria in 2007.
Tomokazu Harimoto is a Japanese professional table tennis player who is currently world rank number 3 in ITTF. Born to Chinese parents, he became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 2014. He won the world junior singles and team title at the 2016 World Junior Table Tennis Championships for Japan.
Wang Chuqin is a Chinese professional table tennis player. He is the top ranked player in the ITTF world ranking. He was the silver medallist in men's singles, gold medallist in mixed doubles with Sun Yingsha and gold medallist in men's doubles with Fan Zhendong for the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships in Durban. He won the men's singles title at the WTT Cup Finals in 2021 and WTT Champions Xinxiang in 2022. He was crowned the men's singles title at WTT Champions Macao twice. Wang also won gold along with teammates Fan Zhendong, Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan and Ma Long at the 2022 World Team Table Tennis Championships. 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.
