ITTF, Dubai Sports Council join hands to make ping pong more popular

DUBAI, March 12 (Xinhua) -- International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) President Thomas Weikert and Dubai Sports Council Secretary General Saeed Hareb said here Sunday that Dubai will support the ITTF's initiative TTX (which stands for table tennis anywhere) which aims to inspire more people to play ping pong.

Speaking at a joint media briefing following the ITTF Executive Committee biannual meeting held here on Saturday, Weikert said that TTX was launched on the eve of the Summer Olympic Games in Rio 2016.

"The feedback has been tremendous among the general public and we aim to spread the concept of TTX, a short best of three-set freestyle match with each set no longer than two minutes, throughout the globe to make people discover the lover for our sport," said the German ITTF President.

The TTX initiative encourages holiday resorts and even offices to install a table tennis table anywhere it fits.

Dubai Sports Council Secretary General said, "Our beaches, hotels and shopping malls can be fertile grounds to promote TTX and to attract more people, especially youngsters, to play ping pong."

Weikert hailed Dubai's efforts and its role a host of several ITTF tournaments in recent years. The last major tournament in Dubai was the 2016 Nakheel table tennis Asian Cup held in April last year.

Asked when the next ITTF challenge with top players would take place in Dubai, ITTF Vice President Shi Zhihao replied, "We cannot confirm yet, but we do hope Dubai will host the next tournament with world class player in 2018 or 2019. We like the sheikhdom."

During the March 11 meeting in Dubai, the ITTF Executive Committee decided to endorse the four applications received (Bahamas, Cape Verde, Eritrea and Guinea-Bissau) for consideration to be accepted as members of the ITTF at the Annual General Meeting to be held in Dusseldorf on May 31, 2017.

Weikert also said he will visit Guinea-Bissau, the last applicant in April. Once the ITTF AGM accepts these four associations, ITTF will be present in all countries in the world, a total of 226, being the first international federation to do so.