Olympic table tennis venue to host two events in December

(BEIJING, December 3) -- The Peking University Gymnasium (PUG), inaugurated recently, will host the ITTF Pro-Tour Grand Finals from December 13 to 16 and the Good Luck Beijing (GLB) Table Tennis International Invitational Tournament from December 18 to 19.

The events will fully test the venue's operational capabilities for next year's Olympic Games, according to Yao Zhenxu, vice-president of the organizing committee for the GLB tournament.

He told those at a press conference that the scheduled participants of the Grand Tour Finals include such top players as China's Wang Liqing, Ma Lin, Wang Hao, Ma Long, Chen Qi, and Hao Shuai; the Republic of Korea's Ryu Seung Min, who is the Olympic men's singles defending champion; Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus; Li Jing of Hong Kong China; and Chuan Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei on the men's side. On the women's side, Zhang Yining, Wang Nan, Guo Yue, Li Xiaoxia, and Guo Yan of China; Li Jiawei of Singapore; Fukuhara Ai of Japan; and Tie Yana of Hong Kong China will make the event a high-level competition.

The Grand Finals consists of six individual events: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and under-21 men's and women's singles. Of these, the first four events will be conducted under the elimination system.

According to Yao, the ITTF Pro-Tour Grand Finals was launched in 1996 in Tianjin, China. Its level of competition falls just after the Olympic Games, the World Championships, and the World Cup. Only the top 16 players in the singles competitions and the top eight in the doubles will qualify for the finals.

The GLB tournament was set up especially for testing the team competitions of the 2008 Olympic Games. The men's team event, involving China, Hong Kong China, the Republic of Korea, and a united team from Europe, will also adopt the knockout system. The women's team event, involving China, Hong Kong China, Singapore, and Europe United, will use the round robin system.

The organizers said the prices of the tickets to the Pro-Tour Grand Finals range from 20 yuan to 100 yuan on the first two days (December 13-14) and from 120 yuan to 160 yuan from December 15 to 16. The prices of the tickets to the invitational tournament from December 18 to 19 range from 20 yuan to 100 yuan. A total of 3,500 tickets will be available for each day's competitions.

Located at the southeast corner of Peking University and eight kilometers from the Olympic Village, the 7,000-seat PUG is a venue built specially for table tennis competitions of the 2008 Olympic Games.