China remain the side to beat in Teams Cup table tennis

Dubai: As expected, China will start as the strong favourites in the men's and women's categories at the World Table Tennis Teams Cup Classic that gets under way at the Al Nasr Club Tuesday.

"China has always been a leader in table tennis and that is the pressure that comes along with being in such a position in a particular sport," China team manager Xiao He told Gulf News at Monday's official draw ceremony.

"Whatever the competition, China is always prepared to defend its ranking as the world's best country in table tennis."

In the men's competition, China has been drawn to face a strong Japan in their first-round match, while the Chinese women's team will face Hong Kong-China in their opening round.

"There is no such thing as an easy draw in the team competition. It's such a small field of eight teams that you can be drawn against any of the top teams," the Chinese team manager remarked.

Judit Farago, the Executive Director of Competitions with the International Table Tennis Federation said it was an honour for the world governing body of table tennis to have Dubai host such a competition.

"Dubai is known the world over for organising some of the best tournaments in tennis, golf, horse racing, rugby and cricket," Farago said.

"And now we have table tennis joining this family of sports. This is a real honour for the ITTF."

Success

Dr Ahmad Sa'ad Al Sharif, Secretary-General of Dubai Sports Council, who was present at the draw ceremony, said he was confident in the event's success. "This is Dubai at its best once again. The cream of table tennis is here in Dubai and this will be an experience for our UAE team to compete against the best players in the world," Dr Sharif said.

This is the first time that such a high-level table tennis championship is being held in the UAE. Qatar and Kuwait have hosted big table tennis competitions in the past. Today, the first day of the tournament, will be dedicated to choosing one team from each category to vie alongside the top seven-ranked countries.

Entrance free

Nigeria, Canada, Australia and hosts, the UAE, are competing in the men's section to be the one team to move into the main round, while Australia, US, Brazil and Congo Brazzaville are the four sides in the women's category.

Action to decide the two ICC winners will get under way at 10am today, and will be followed by the official opening ceremony at 6.30pm. Entrance is free.

Tomorrow will be the start of the actual competition involving the best eight teams in the world in both categories.

The finals will be played on October 1.