The teams are set to do battle on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th August 2018 at 2.00 pm local time. Both teams will field a much changed line up from 2016. Only Chuang Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei and Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong keep their place in the Asia team while Belarusian legend Vladimir Samsonov will once again lead the Europe team.
Lining up alongside Chuang and Wong are Korea Republic’s Lee Sangsu, Japan’s Koki Niwa and grand slam Champion Zhang Jike. Zhang who recently made the finals of the Japan Open appears to be on the right track in his comeback despite a minor injury suffered in Korea. Together with his teammates, they will be looking to recapture the title won in 2016.
On the other hand, Team Europe would be looking to take revenge after a narrow loss in the previous instalment. Portugal’s Marcos Freitas, Denmark’s Jonathan Groth, Germany’s Bastien Steger and Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson joins Samsonov in forming a formidable team.
All matches will be played on a single table, five matches per day with the current world ranking deciding the order of play. Over two days of matches, the winners will be decided by the number of matches won.
To catch all the action from the 2018 Asia – Europe All Star Challenge, be sure to head to ITTF’s free streaming platform itTV here.
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Order of Play (Asian names first)
Saturday 4th August
Koki Niwa v Vladimir Samsonov, Chuang Chih-Yuan v Jonathan Groth, Wong Chun Ting v Kristian Karlsson, Lee Sangsu v Marcos Freitas, Zhang Jike v Bastian Steger
Sunday 5th August
Koki Niwa v Bastian Steger, Zhang Jike v Jonathan Groth, Lee Sangsu v Kristian Karlsson, Wong Chun Ting v Marcos Freitas, Chuang Chih-Yuan v Vladimir Samsonov