China connection key to global growth, says ITTF chief

The International Table Tennis Federation believes closer cooperation with China will be key to accelerating the sport's global growth.

China's star paddlers continue to dominate on the table, while legendary former player and coach Liu Guoliang has played a major role in revamping the sport's global profile as chairman of the World Table Tennis board, among other roles.

"It's really important that we work very closely with the Chinese table tennis community, and also the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) to ensure that together we help grow the game of table tennis," ITTF Group CEO Steve Dainton told China Daily in an exclusive video interview.

"I think in recent years, it's clear to see that this relationship is becoming even stronger and better. Mr Liu Guoliang, as president of the CTTA, has a strong desire to work together with us at the international federation to help grow the sport of table tennis, not only in China but also internationally.

"This is helping us a lot to ensure that table tennis is big not only in China, but also in Asia and the rest of the world. So I think this has been very obvious, but we need to do even more. And we hope we can come to China more often, and China can come more often to the international events."

China has been a powerhouse in table tennis for decades, underlining its dominance by sweeping the medals at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals last week in Durban, South Africa.

Despite the clean sweep, the triumph was by no means easy, with China having to battle through a field packed with up-and-coming young paddlers from across the globe — in particular a talent-stacked Japan squad. Dainton believes the increasing competitiveness of China's opponents will further facilitate the sport's global growth.

"The Tokyo Olympics helped the Japanese market quite a lot, and they had some good results with an Olympic gold medal (in mixed doubles). So they are obviously one of the biggest challengers for the Chinese team in recent years," said Dainton.

"We are looking at different markets. I think in the coming years, we will see India as a market that can start to develop some players. We have Manika Batra, who has had some good successes in recent years. If we can get a couple more Indian players doing as well as her, I think we can see big growth in India."

Chinese players such as women's ace Sun Yingsha and men's hotshot Fan Zhendong remain the brightest stars of the sport, traveling the world to compete in virtually all of the WTT and ITTF events.

Apart from pocketing medals, Chinese players have embraced the international circuit as an opportunity to connect with the wider table tennis community, often forging strong bonds with their opponents.

"We have many stories of great friendships between players, not only in Asia, but also internationally. There's a really fun recent story of Sun Yingsha and Adriana Diaz from Puerto Rico. Adriana is trying to learn some Chinese and Sun is also trying to learn some more English, and they connected very well together," Dainton said.

"The ITTF is almost 100 years old, and we were always considered a table tennis family. Inside this table tennis family, every time we get together, and no matter which cultures, which countries and which continents, we're always happy and enjoy our time together."

To maximize table tennis' global profile, the ITTF and WTT have been endeavoring to bring events to more continents. The 2021 edition of the World Table Tennis Championships was staged in Houston, Texas in the United States, while this year's worlds came to South Africa, which was the first time the championships were staged in Africa since 1939. The WTT is also extending its reach by staging tournaments of varying levels all over the world to help boost the sport's global fan base.

"The ITTF created World Table Tennis, which officially started in 2021. So now it's coming up to the third year. The founding principles of the WTT are to connect more with fans, and also to put the players at the front and center of everything that we do," said Dainton.

"As a sport, we have 227 member associations in the ITTF. And that structure ensures that we are as global a sport as possible. The WTT itself is really mainly about the players and mainly about the fans and trying to ensure that we look after them in the best way possible."