List of champions
gray = Not Played
white = results not known or yet researched
∗ The Mixed Doubles played at the 2003 U.S. Open was a delayed closed event. See the 2002 U.S. Nationals results below.
The annual U.S. Open is the oldest currently running table tennis tournament in the United States. [1] It attracts over 600 athletes annually. [2] The first events were actually run by either the New York Table Tennis Club or the American Ping Pong Association. The first USA Table Tennis (USTTA) [3] tournament was held in 1934.
The U.S. Open has been previously held in various locations, including Anaheim, California; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois ; Las Vegas, Nevada; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; [4] Grand Rapids, Michigan; [4] [5] and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. [6]
Due to its international nature, most events are played under International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rules and at times the tournament has been included as an ITTF Pro Tour / World Tour event.
gray = Not Played
white = results not known or yet researched
∗ The Mixed Doubles played at the 2003 U.S. Open was a delayed closed event. See the 2002 U.S. Nationals results below.
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 relative to other ball sports, which can heavily affect the ball's trajectory.
Ping-pong diplomacy refers to the exchange of table tennis (ping-pong) players between the United States and the People's Republic of China in the early 1970s. Considered a turning point in relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China, it began during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, as a result of an encounter between players Glenn Cowan and Zhuang Zedong. The exchange and its promotion helped people in each country to recognize the humanity in the people of the other country, and it paved the way for President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national table tennis associations. 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 that has continued since 1926.
Karl Peter Karlsson is a table tennis player. He was 1991 World Champion in men's doubles, and 2000 European Champion in men's singles he is married to Åsa Karlsson.
Li Jiawei is a retired Chinese-born former Singaporean table tennis player, four-time Olympian and twice Olympic medalist. She trained in Beijing's famous Shichahai Sports School with Olympic medalist Zhang Yining. In 1995, she moved to Singapore and in the following year, she commenced her international career as a competitive table tennis player. She became a Singapore citizen at the age of 18 years under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme.
Zhang Yining is a Chinese table tennis player who retired in 2009. She is considered one of the greatest female players in the sport's history. In terms of achievements, she is one of the most successful female table tennis players having won the gold medal in each of the Table Tennis World Cup, the Table Tennis World Championships, and the Olympic Games. She is also the first player overall, and the first female, to have completed a Double Grand Slam.
Guo Yue is a Chinese table tennis player and the 2007 women's world champion.
Chuang Chih-yuan is a Taiwanese table tennis player. He won the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals in 2002 and doubles title at the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships. He participated in the Summer Olympics five times, making the most appearances at Olympic Games among Taiwanese athletes.
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.
The ITTF World Tour, known as the ITTF Pro Tour until 2011, was an annual series of table tennis tournaments introduced by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) in 1996. The tour includes events in seven categories: Men's and Women's Singles, Men's, Women's, and Mixed Doubles, and Under-21 Men's and Women's Singles. The tour has its own points system, with players accumulating points based on their performances in the tournaments they enter.
The ITTF World Tour Grand Finals, formerly named ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, was an annual table tennis tournament sanctioned by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) at the end of the year. The tournament included seven events: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, mixed doubles, U21 men's and women's singles. Players who accumulated the largest number of points on the ITTF World Tour were qualified for the event, and competing for total prize money of US$1,000,000, the biggest total prize money event in the ITTF calendar.
USA Table Tennis, colloquially known as USATT, is the non-profit governing body for table tennis in the United States and is responsible for cataloging and sanctioning table tennis tournaments within the country. It was founded in 1933 as the United States Table Tennis Association. In addition to processing tournaments, USATT maintains a national rating and ranking system. It also oversees the USA National Teams. In total, USATT has over 9,000 members. The headquarters of USA Table Tennis is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, which is also home to the United States Olympic Training Center. USA Table Tennis offers a $100,000 incentive for American Olympic table tennis athletes, though no American athlete has ever won a medal for table tennis.
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.
Ichiro Ogimura was a Japanese table tennis player, coach, president of the ITTF and former World No. 1 who won 12 World Championship titles during his career. Ogimura was also a key figure in the Ping Pong Diplomacy events of the early 1970s, as well as being instrumental in Korea playing as a unified team at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships.
Ariel Yenhua Hsing is an American table tennis player who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Table Tennis England, formerly the English Table Tennis Association, is the national governing body for table tennis in England, responsible for representing, coordinating, administering, marketing and developing the sport. Most of its annual income comes from government grants and Sport England funding. Table Tennis England runs three separate national championships every year – for U10-U13 players; cadets and juniors; and seniors – as well as operating the British League, a Grand Prix series and other irregularly held tournaments, including the English Open.
The Korea Open is an annual table tennis tournament in South Korea. It is organised by the Korea Table Tennis Association, under the authority of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), and is currently one of six top-tier Platinum events on the ITTF World Tour.
Soo Yeon Lee is a South Korean former table tennis player, model, actress and coach. Lee started playing table tennis at a very early age and was also trained extensively in the sport by an Olympic gold medalist Jung Hwa Hyun in South Korea. Soon thereafter she went on to successively win the Korean National Junior Championship six times since the age of 12. She has been featured in advertisement campaigns for a number of prominent brands including Nike, Adidas, K-Swiss, Red Bull, and Target. She is the brand ambassador for SPiN, a chain of table tennis restaurants and bars.
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.
Wally Green is an American table tennis player. He has played for the U.S. in more than 35 International Pro Tour competitions.