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.[1]

ITTF World Tour
SportTable tennis
Founded1996
Ceased2020
Replaced byWorld Table Tennis
Owner(s)International Table Tennis Federation
Sponsor(s)Seamaster
Related
competitions
ITTF World Tour Grand Finals
ITTF Challenge Series

Since 2017, the ITTF also announced that the World Tour would be split into two tiers, with six World Tour Platinum, the new top tier of World Tour, and six regular World Tour events. The players who gain the most points in each of the seven different categories will be invited to participate in the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals at the end of the year.

Since 2021, the ITTF World Tour has been effectively replaced by the newly created World Table Tennis.

Overview

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Tournaments −'15 2013−'16 2017−
Tiers 0 ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals/ITTF World Tour Grand Finals
I Super Series World Tour Platinum
II Major Series World Tour
III Challenge Series

ITTF Pro Tour (1996–2011)

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Number of tournaments in each year (Grand Finals not counted):

Year 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Number of tournaments 10 14 11 12 9 12 13 10 16 14 16 17 14 14 13 16
Location of Grand Finals                                

ITTF World Tour (2012–2019)

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Number of tournaments in each year (Grand Finals not counted):

Year 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Number of tournaments 21 19 20 22 20 12 12 12
Location of Grand Finals                

Winners of the tournaments

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Grand Finals

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Tournaments by year

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This is a list of tournaments that have featured in the ITTF Pro Tour and ITTF World Tour since 1996, with "" indicating the years in which each tournament featured.[2]

From 2004 to 2009, and again from 2011 to 2013, there were two China Open tournaments in each calendar year.

Since 2017, the ITTF Challenge Series has been run as a separate tour, reducing the number of tournaments on the main ITTF World Tour.[3]

Tournament 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Total
  Argentina Open 2
  Australian Open 10
  Austrian Open 14
  Belarus Open Part of Challenge Series 7
  Belgium Open Part of Challenge Series 4
  Brazil Open 17
  Bulgarian Open 5
  Chile Open 10
  China Open 33
  Chinese Taipei Open 3
  Croatia Open Part of Challenge Series 14
  Czech Open 9
  Danish Open 6
  DPR Korea Open Part of Challenge Series 2
  Dutch Open 2
  Egypt Open 5
  English Open 6
  French Open 5
  German Open 20
  Greek Open 1
  Hong Kong Open 2
  Hungarian Open 8
  India Open 4
  Italian Open 3
  Japan Open 24
  Korea Open 19
  Kuwait Open 10
  Lebanon Open 2
  Malaysia Open 3
  Morocco Open 5
  Nigeria Open Part of Challenge Series 3
  Philippines Open 2
  Polish Open Part of Challenge Series 13
  Qatar Open 21
  Russian Open 7
  Serbian Open 1
  Singapore Open 3
  Slovenia Open Part of Challenge Series 9
  Spanish Open Part of Challenge Series 5
  Swedish Open 18
  UAE Open 2
  U.S. Open 9
  Yugoslavia Open 3
Tournament 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Total

Business

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On 12 January 2017, it was announced that Chinese shipping company Seamaster had agreed a four-year sponsorship and strategic partnership deal with the ITTF World Tour.[4]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Points allocation for ITTF World Tour standings". ITTF. Archived from the original on 22 October 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  2. ^ "ITTF Statistics". ITTF. Archived from the original on 14 August 2010. Retrieved 25 June 2010.
  3. ^ "A motivating force, the Challenge tournaments". ITTF. 15 December 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  4. ^ "ITTF Secures World Tour Title Sponsorship & Strategic Partnership with Seamaster". ITTF. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
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