The English stars are seizing the opportunity to be in the spotlight at London’s biggest table tennis event since 2018.
WTT Star Contender London brings together Olympic medalists, top 20 world stars and a battalion of English athletes at the iconic Copper Box Arena in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
While hundreds of spectators cheered them to the rafters, the Box that rocks will ignite!
It all starts with the qualifying rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday, with established and emerging English stars joining the leaders in the main draw.
England will also be well represented at that stage, with the likes of Tom Jarvis and Tin-Tin Ho aiming to be among the top flight when they begin their campaigns from Thursday morning.
We spoke to Tom, Tin-Tin and some of the other English stars and found out they can’t wait to show off their skills in front of a passionate home crowd.
For Tom Jarvis, there are fond memories of the ITTF Team World Cup at the same venue in 2018, when England won bronze medals to reach the semi-finals, where they were knocked out by all-conquering China.
And he believes the home crowd, building on the successful WTT Feeder Manchester events of the past two seasons, will help the players.
Tom said: “I think the Manchester Feeders have been a huge success and we’ve all enjoyed it very much. We’ve had a great crowd and I don’t think it gets more fun for all of us than playing in front of a home crowd.”
“Obviously they’ve taken it a step further in a bigger arena than Manchester. We’ve played in that before at the World Cup. It’s really big for all of us and hopefully some of us can put in a good performance.”
“WTT is very tough, especially when you start in the main draw. You can’t play anyone outside the top 70 or 80 in the world, so every win you get there will have to be a real battle.”
“I think the home crowd gives you that little bit of extra energy, which makes it mean more. It may make some people nervous, but I enjoy playing in it more. That’s what we practice for, to play in front of a big crowd at big tournaments.”
Women’s No. 1 Tin-Tin Ho, who also played at the Team World Cup in her hometown in 2018, says having family and friends in the crowd will also make a big difference.
“It’s so exciting to have a big WTT in London and very exciting to get back to the Copper Box,” she said. “We played the World Cup there and it was a very good experience to play so close to home and have the players from other countries come to London as well.
“It’s nice to know the crowd is behind you and I’m glad my parents and friends will hopefully be watching too.”
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