Xu Xin was the men’s singles top seed in both events (Photo: Rémy Gros)
Owing to the current situation regarding the pandemic, the Chinese Table Tennis Association has withdrawn players they entered originally for the forthcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) Middle East Hub tournaments.
Including qualification, the Contender event takes place from Sunday 28th February to Saturday 6th March, the Star Contender from Friday 5th to Saturday 13 March.
It means that in the main draw of the men’s singles event Xu Xin will not compete; similarly, Xu Yingbin and Yu Ziyang will not be on duty in the qualification stage.
Likewise, in the women’s singles, Sun Yingsha and Liu Shiwen will not appear in the main phase of proceedings, Zhang Rui will be absent from the qualifying event.
The focus for China is Tokyo, the delayed 2020 Olympic Games.