Table Tennis World Tour comes to Belgium

The coastal town of De Haan this week hosts the ITTF World Tour, a series of table tennis tournaments introduced by the International Table Tennis Federation. The tournament takes place from Wednesday through Saturday.

About 150 international table tennis players are in De Haan to contend for the top places in the World Tour, including table tennis stars Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus and Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov (pictured).

There are 20 Belgian participants, most of which are starting out in the qualification round or in the U-21 tournament. Five Belgians have already secured a spot in the main draw: Cedric Nuytinck, Lauric Jean, Robin Devos, Lisa Lung and Eline Loyen.

The ITTF World Tour includes 21 tournaments in three categories: six ‘Super Series’ (Qatar, Kuwait, Germany, South Korea, Japan, China), four ‘Majors’ (Spain, Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden) and 11 ‘Challenges’ (including Belgium).