The ITTF World Tour, known as the ITTF Pro Tour until 2011, is an annual series of
table tennis
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. It takes place on a hard table div ...
tournaments introduced by
International Table Tennis Federation
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 tenni ...
(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.
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 The ITTF World Tour Grand Finals, formerly named ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, is an annual table tennis tournament sanctioned by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) at the end of the year. The tournament includes seven events: men's and wome ...
at the end of the year.
Overview
ITTF Pro Tour (1996–2011)
Number of tournaments in each year (Grand Finals not counted):
ITTF World Tour (2012–present)
Number of tournaments in each year (Grand Finals not counted):
Winners of the tournaments
Grand Finals
Tournaments by year
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.
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.
Business
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.
See also
*
World Table Tennis Championships
The World Table Tennis Championships are table tennis competitions sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The World Championships have been held since 1926, biennially since 1957. Five individual events, which include m ...
*
Table Tennis World Cup
The Table Tennis World Cup has been held annually since 1980. There had been only men's singles until the inauguration of women's singles in 1996 and team competitions in 1990. The team competitions, the World Team Cup, were canceled until the rela ...
*
Table tennis at the Summer Olympics
Table tennis competition has been in the Summer Olympic Games since 1988, with singles and doubles events for men and women. Athletes from China have dominated the sport, winning a total of 60 medals in 37 events, including 32 out of a possible ...
References
External links
ITTF World TourITTF Statistics
{{International sports tours
International Table Tennis Federation
Table tennis tours and series
Recurring sporting events established in 1996