The list of 20 women and 20 men that have qualified for the ITTF 2014 Women’s World Cup and the LIEBHERR 2014 Men’s World Cup have been announced by the International Table Tennis Federation. The 20 women who qualified will compete in Linz Au
The list of 20 women and 20 men that have qualified for the ITTF 2014 Women’s World Cup and the LIEBHERR 2014 Men’s World Cup have been announced by the International Table Tennis Federation.
The 20 women who qualified will compete in Linz Austria on 17-19 October 2014 which will be the first time the Women’s World Cup will be held outside Asia. The men will battle it out to be Men’s World Cup champion in Dusseldorf Germany on 24-26 October 2014.
The world’s best table tennis players had to qualify for the prestigious World Cup events through their respective Continental Cups which means only the best of the best can compete.
The only other players to receive the golden ticket to play in the 2014 World Cup’s were the current World Champions ZHANG Jike (CHN) and LI Xiaoxia (CHN) and the two lucky players that received a wildcard into the events Panagiotis GIONIS (GRE) and Elizabeta SAMARA (ROU).
The LIEBHERR 2014 Men’s World Cup promises to be one of the best in recent memory with all the stars of international table tennis competing. One of those stars Olympic bronze medalist Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) will be aiming to win his first Men’s World Cup in front of his home crowd in Dusseldorf:
“Last year I was really close to winning the title. Since last year I have been training hard and with the support of the local crowd in the city I am living in I think I can win my first ever World Title event.”
OVTCHAROV will be the local’s favorite to win the Men’s World Cup as will Austrian LIU Jia at the Women’s World Cup. LIU qualified by sensationally winning the DHS Europe Cup earlier and will be keen to take that strong form to Linz where she hopes to win a medal.
ITTF 2014 Women’s World Cup qualifiers:
Current World Champion: LI Xiaoxia (CHN)
Wildcard: Elizabeta SAMARA (ROU)
DHS 2014 Europe Cup: LI Jiao (NED) LIU Jia (AUT) Viktoria PAVLOVICH (BLR) Petrissa SOLJA (GER) WU Jiaduo (GER) Georgina POTA (HUN) Iveta VACENOVSKA (CZE) & Margaryta PESOTSKA (UKR)
GAC Honda 2014 Asian Cup: DING Ning (CHN) LI Xiaoxia (CHN) YU Mengyu (SIN) RI Myong Sun (PRK) LEE Ho Ching (HKG) FENG Tianwei (SIN) & SEOK Hajung (KOR)
K-Sport 2014 ITTF-Oceania Cup: LAY Jian Fang (AUS)
2014 ITTF-Latin American Cup: Caroline KUMAHARA (BRA)
2014 ITTF-African Cup: Dina MESHREF (EGY)
2014 ITTF-North American Cup: ZHANG Mo (CAN)
LIEBHERR 2014 Men’s World Cup qualifiers:
Current World Champion: ZHANG Jike (CHN)
Wildcard: Panagiotis GIONIS (GRE)
DHS 2014 Europe Cup: Marcos FREITAS (POR) Michael MAZE (DEN) Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) Adrien MATTENET (FRA) Alexander SHIBAEV (RUS) & Timo BOLL (GER)
GAC Honda 2014 Asian Cup: MA Long (CHN) MIZUTANI Jun (JPN) CHEN Chien-An (TPE) KIM Minseok (KOR) Sharath Kamal ACHANTA (IND) CHUANG Chih-Yuan (TPE) MATSUDAIRA Kenta (JPN) & TANG Peng (HKG)
K-Sport 2014 ITTF-Oceania Cup: William HENZELL (AUS)
2014 ITTF-Latin American Cup: Cazuo MATSUMOTO (BRA)
2014 ITTF-Africa Cup: Quadri ARUNA (NGR)
2014 ITTF-North American Cup: Kanak JHA (USA)