Chinese table tennis stars hot on Asian Cup

Chinese table tennis stars Liu Shiwen and Zhang Jike told Xinhua here Wednesday they are confident to score high at the 2016 Nakheel Table Tennis Asian Cup which will kick off here Thursday with 16 men and 16 women of the world's best players ready to take the pre-Olympic showdown.

Liu, the world's women number one in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings, said despite a growing number of younger talents entering professional table tennis, "I will continue to play my style and I am confident for the 2016 Nakheel Table Tennis Asian Cup, although there is fierce competition ahead."

Zhang, the men's number four in the world, said that this tournament was for him an important test 100 days before the Summer Olympic Games in Rio later from August 5 - August 21 this year, "so the cup is for me a good opportunity to figure out the situation in Asia's top table tennis scene."

Liu, 25 and five times winner of Table Tennis World Cup (including 2015), was seeded number one in qualification group one, the draw earlier today revealed, together with her rivals Miu Hirano from Japan, Tie Yana (Hong Kong, China) and Zion Lee.

Zhang who arrived in Dubai five days ago in order to fully recover from travelling, landed on position one in group two together with world number nine Wong Chun Ting (Hong Kong, China), Lee Sangsu (Singapore) and India's Achanta Sharath Kamal. Only two men and two women from each country were allowed to take part in this by invitation only event.

Other Chinese super stars taking part are Li Xiaoxia, the 2012 Olympic gold medallist who will now head to Rio to defend her title, and Zhang's friend and sports rival Xu Xin (number three) in the men's group.

The ITTF stars practiced earlier Wednesday in the Dubai World Trade Center's Zabeel Hall and met later fans and table tennis aficionados in the Dragon Mart, the largest shopping selling products Made in China outside China.

The finals of the tournament sponsored by Dubai's developer Nakheel, the state-owned firm behind the man-made island The Palm and the Chinese super-mall Dragon Mart in Dubai, will take place on Saturday, April 30.