Dubai Gives Added Boost To China's Table Tennis Team By Sponsoring Squad

The 2013 World Tour Grand Final of table tennis, which begins Thursday in Dubai, is "possibly the first visible benefit of Dubai sponsoring the Chinese national table tennis team," according to Jaydip Sengupta of XPRESS. The tournament, sponsored by Chinese carmakers Guangzhou Automobile Company, is a $1M affair and is "the richest in terms of prizemoney." It is being held outside China for the first time due to Dubai "stepping in to sponsor the Chinese national side." The city will host the top 16 men’s and women’s players from the 19 Int'l Table Tennis Federation World Tour events of '13 for the Grand Final. ITTF CEO Judit Farago said that Dubai "has already become a big player in table tennis in the middle-east." Farago: "When Dubai bid to host major tournaments last year, we were really interested and it doesn’t get bigger than this event, so we were happy for the city to host it. We have big plans for Dubai as the World Team Cup will also be hosted by the city most likely in early 2015" (XPRESS, 1/8).