DOHA (Qatar): China’s Xu Xin (2,044 points) and Fan Zhendong (1,507 points) ended the year in first and second places in the ITTF World Tour men’s singles standings.
The Grand Finals will be held in Zhengzhou, China, from December 12 to 15.
A prize fund in excess of US$ 1,000,000, a total of 16 players will compete in each of the men’s singles and women’s singles events.
Xu won in Japan, Korea and Australia while Fan succeeded in Germany and Austria.
Both are former winners at the Grand Finals — Xu won in 2012 in Hangzhou and in 2013 in Dubai; Fan in 2017 (Astana).
Next in line are two more world-class athletes from China, Lin Gaoyuan (1,475 points) and five-times champion Ma Long (1,425 points).
This year Ma won in Qatar and China while Lin Gaoyuan in Hungary and Hong Kong.
All eyes on Japan’s Harimoto
Sitting in fifth place is the defending Grand Finals champion, Tomokazu Harimoto (930 points).
The 16-year-old Japanese star, who stole the show last year in Incheon, succeeded in Bulgaria.
Following are two other teenagers in Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju (866 points) and China’s Wang Chuqin (819).
Highly impressive throughout 2019, Lin and Wang celebrated gold at the Czech and Swedish Opens respectively, their first ever men’s singles titles on the ITTF World Tour.
Completing the top 10 male representatives in Zhengzhou are China’s Liang Jingkun (773 points), Brazil’s Hugo Calderano (619 points) and Germany’s Timo Boll (544 points), the winner in 2005 in Fuzhou.
Boll’s team-mates Dimitrij Ovtcharov (512 points) and Patrick Franziska (496 points) are next in line, followed by China’s Zhao Zihao (489 points), Sweden’s Mattias Falck (438 points) and Korea Republic’s Jeoung Youngsik (404 points).
Japan’s Jun Mizutani (402 points), a Grand Finals champion in 2010 in Seoul and in 2014 in Bangkok, completes the top 16 names.
Teenagers occupy prime positions in women’s singles
Both 19 years young, China’s Sun Yingsha (1,882 points) and Japan’s Mima Ito (1,685 points) ended the year in the respective top two places.
Sun Yingsha won in Japan, Australia and Germany, while Ito secured gold in Austria after being the silver medallist in Germany, Sweden and Hong Kong.
