The latest stop on the lucrative GAC Group ITTF World Tour is the $231,000 Harmony Open, which starts today in Suzhou, China and runs to Sunday 18 August.
The Harmony Open always attracts the world's best table tennis players, and 2013 is no different with 6 out of the top 10 ranked men and women making the trip to Suzhou looking to gain valuable points to qualify for the 1 million dollar World Tour Finals later in the year.
The players will be treated to large crowds, with 40,000 expected to attend the event to get a glimpse of their heroes that 218 million Chinese people watched on TV at the recent World Championships.
World number two XU Xin (CHN), is one of those that the local public will be flocking into see. The reigning World Tour Grand Final Champion, will be using the Harmony Open as a chance to regain some form after a disappointing few months by his lofty standards.
"I am very happy to be part of the Chinese team here" stated the 23 year old.
"I participated in the Suzhou Open from the very first time it was held back in 2009, and I feel that I grew up with the event. I hope to be able to play at a high level in this event, and showcase Table Tennis to the fans and everyone else".
XU Xin's biggest rival will be world number one and close friend MA Long (CHN) who is the owner of 15 Men's Singles titles and 3 Grand Final titles on the ITTF World Tour.
London 2012 bronze medalist Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) who is in top form after impressive performances over the past 6 weeks in the Chinese Super League will like his chances to topple the powerful Chinese in Suzhou.
In the women's event, LIU Shiwen (CHN) goes into the event as the number one seed knowing gold will make her the world's number one player, breaking DING Ning's (CHN) extraordinary 22 month streak as world number one. With the Olympic gold and silver medalists LI Xiaoxio (CHN) and DING Ning (CHN) not making the trip, LIU Shiwen's biggest rivals for gold will be FENG Tianwei (SIN) and Yanfei SHEN (ESP).
In addition to the senior singles events, the players will battle it out for the men's and women's doubles and Under 21 men's and women's singles.
The Harmony Open offers so much more than world-class table tennis; they also run cultural and historical shows and events to educate fans about the history of table tennis and Suzhou's rich culture and heritage. The Harmony Open is the perfect combination of cultural entertainment and table tennis!
Watch all the action live on ITTF's streaming platformITTF.com/itTV all day everyday until Sunday.
High resolution, rights free pictures are available on FlickR here: Flickr.com/ITTFWorld
Watch all the highlights on ITTF's YouTube channel here: YouTube.com/ITTFChannel
Follow @ITTFWorld on Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo and Twitter for the latest updates on the Harmony Open
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