SINGAPORE – With packed weekend crowds of about 2,500 cheering on their favourite table tennis stars, the Singapore Smash has seen a 77 per cent ticket sale increase from the 2023 edition for organisers World Table Tennis (WTT).
WTT chief events officer Stephen Duckitt is encouraged by the spike and progress of local representation at the US$1.5 million (S$2 million) tournament. There were 19 Singaporeans competing, up from 18, with two of the men’s doubles pairs progressing to the last 16 at the OCBC Arena.
There, Josh Chua and Lucas Tan took a game off South Korea’s world No. 2 pair Lim Jong-hoon and Jang Woo-jin.
Koen Pang and Izaac Quek beat Argentina’s Horacio Cifuentes and Santiago Lorenzo in straight games to earn the right to face China’s Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin. The local hopefuls led the quarter-final contest after winning the opening game 11-9 but eventually lost to the top-ranked pair.
The Singapore Smash also featured a para table tennis division and a junior tournament for the world’s best Under-19 and Under-15 players.
It is understood that there is a multiple-year, seven-figure agreement with national agency Sport Singapore to keep the Singapore Smash.
Duckitt said the event “is an integral part of the Grand Smash equation” and added: “Singapore is the home of WTT, we have a strong commitment from Sport Singapore to grow and expand the event, and it has quickly built a great reputation with the playing group as one of the events they love to come and play.”
Launched by the International Table Tennis Federation in 2020, the WTT is a commercial vehicle that created a new event structure and intended to double the total prize money on its circuit to US$13 million a year.
At the apex are the biggest and most lucrative Grand Smash tournaments – modelled after tennis’ Grand Slams.
While the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted plans to roll out four Grand Smashes, stops in Saudi Arabia and China have been added.
Duckitt said: “Our entire new WTT Series was affected. We were having a lot of good conversations with cities and countries and then they completely dried up as governments shifted their focus on the pandemic response and economic recovery.”
The inaugural Saudi Smash will take place from May 4 to 11 at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah while two Chinese cities are currently bidding to host the China Smash in late September.
Duckitt noted: “With three of our four Grand Smash hosts confirmed, it provides the opportunity for WTT to look for a fourth host outside of Asia, and we are engaged in conversations with potential hosts in Europe and the United States.
“Both locations provide different opportunities for WTT – Europe as the traditional home of table tennis allows us to link to our heritage, while a US Smash will provide the impetus to promote and expand the sport across North, Central and South America and an untapped but growing market for the sport.”
