The first ever WTT Forum was a resounding success with a record number of over 800,000 attendees tuning in to catch the live stream on Chinese online platforms: Douyin, Toutiao and Xigua.
The WTT Forum was conducted by expert panelists ITTF CEO & WTT Director Steve Dainton, ITTF Marketing Director & WTT Director Matt Pound, WTT Commercial Strategy Consultant Philippe Le Floc’h and WTT Event Strategy Director Stephen Duckitt.
The panelists were joined in the Q&A discussion sessions by a number of star athletes: Ma Long (China), Ding Ning (China), Timo Boll (Germany) Tomokazu Harimoto (Japan), Kasumi Ishikawa (Japan), Quadri Aruna (Nigeria) and Lily Zhang (USA).
Since the players are at the heart of what WTT stands for, their opinions on both the present status and future of the sport are essential as part of the wider discussion on how to take table tennis to new heights.
Topics included the benefits that WTT can bring to athletes, aspects of the new WTT event structure, the concept of a separate women’s tour, the world ranking system, and more.
Understandably, players are excited by the arrival of WTT in 2021 and have recognised how it is geared towards taking the sport forwards.
“I think that WTT is a bold innovation. I’m really looking forward to these high-level professional events and I believe this will help push the sport forward.” Ma Long
“WTT will be a professional event series that’s different from the current world events that we have. It will be more appealing to our audience, for example by trying out different playing systems such as allowing mixed teams, mixed gender and mixed nationality events.” Ding Ning
“I’m very excited to see an exclusive women’s tour that can be devoted to improve the women’s game and inspire the next generation of female players worldwide.” Lily Zhang
Echoing the enthusiasm of the players, the response from Chinese fans across social media has been very positive as well, underlining their optimism for WTT’s role in the future of table tennis.
Furthermore, the WTT Forum enjoyed plenty of coverage across Chinese media outlets, including CCTV5 News, People’s Daily, China Sports News, Titan Sports, Beijing Daily, Xinjing News, Guangzhou Daily, Xinmin and Tencent Sports.
Following the success of the WTT Forum in China, there will be a WTT Players Forum coming up soon to spread the message of World Table Tennis in further detail among the most important stakeholders of all: the athletes.