The organisers have decided, instead of the plastic bottles that have been used during the previous editions of the tournament, this time around there will be aluminum bottles given to all accredited personnel – starting, of course, with the players!

Last year more than 10,000 plastic bottles were used during 2018 ITTF World Tour Asarel Bulgaria Open; one can imagine the damage done to nature, although every effort was made to recycle the used material.

The organisers have prepared special edition bottles for every player with the logo of the tournament and the year engraved in the middle. Members of the organising committee in Panagyurishte hope that this would provoke players, coaches, and others to be more careful when using plastic not only during the event but also afterwards in their everyday life.

It is a move supported by Aneliya Karova, a former player who has competed in the tournament and is a member of the organising committee.

“We firmly believe that our approach will benefit everyone and most importantly the planet that we live on. Furthermore, instead of the typical plastic cups for water and coffee, we are going to use 100 percent recyclable cardboard cups.” Aneliya Karova

Everyone attending the competition will be able to buy the aluminum bottle from a specially prepared stand in the hall.

Aruna rolls on

Recently 31, crowd favorite Quadri Aruna continued his quest for Gold on home soil as he saw off Egyptian Mohamed El-Beiali in straight games (11-7, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8).

A relentless Aruna looked to be in a hurry as he returned everything El-Beiali threw at him with poise and vigor. Can anyone stop the Nigerian?

Huge upset as Meshref departs

African Cup winner and Egypt fan favorite Dina Meshref was soundly beaten by India’s Sreeja Akula, in a magnificent display by the Asian.

Taking a swift 3-0 kead, Akula sent seismic waves across the Sir Molade Okoya Thomas Indoor Sports Hall. Meshref seemed to have been awoken by that, pushing hard in the fourth game. But it was not enough as Akula wrapped up an impressive win 4-0(11-9, 11-6, 11-7, 11-9).

Two Indians too many for Marwa

Egyptian Marwa Alhodaby suffered a second elimination at the hands of an Indian athlete as Pooja Sahasrabudhe clinically defeated her in five games.

After losing out in the Under 21’s to an Indian opponent, Alhodaby looked to be making a slight comeback against Sahasrabudhe. However, it was to no avail as the Indian star upped the ante and took the match 4-1 (11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 12-10).

Host nation strikes back

The home fans finally had something to cheer about as Nigerian duo Olajide Omotayo and Segun Toriola moved on to the semi-finals by defeating Belgian brothers Laurens Devos and Robin Devos (11-9, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6).

It was an important victory after a slow start for the hosts this morning. Elsewhere, Saudi Arabians Abdulaziz Bu Shulaybi and Ali Alkhadrawi took down the French pairing Andrea Landrieu and Alexandre Rabinot in a close 3-2 victory.

And the Euro rail moves on

It seems the Europeans are in a united mood to win big in Lagos, as the women’s doubles followed on from the mixed doubles results.

The Romania-Belgium pairing of Andreea Dragoman and Lisa Lung were clinical in seeing off Algerians Katia Kessaci and Lynda Loghraibi (11-6, 11-4, 11-6). At the same time, Russians Polina Mikhailova and Yana Noskova also won in straight games versus Nigerians Funmiola Ajala and Fatima Bello.

All-European final in Nigeria

The host nation were soundly disappointed in the early hours of Saturday as play began with the mixed doubles semi-finals in Lagos. Nigeria’s Olajide Omotayo and Cecilia Akpan were unable to beat the Luxembourgian pairing of Eric Glod and Sarah de Nutte.

It was a comprehensive win for Glod & de Nutte as they rounded up the match in straight games, giving Omotayo and Akpan no room to work with (11-6, 11-4, 11-9). They will now face the Germans Kilian Ort and Yuan Wan in the final, who saw off Belgian opposition Lisa Lung and Cedric Nuytinck in similar fashion (11-4, 11-9, 11-7).

Knockout stages continue

Look below for the day’s fixture schedule and make sure to watch along live with itTV:

Everyday, the planets, stars, moon and sun all rise in the east. As if following a known fact of life, China continues to produce some of the world’s best talent in international table tennis and this is no more evident than the rise of a certain Sun Yingsha.

Birth of the junior Sun-star

Three years ago, 2016 saw Japanese female stars Mima Ito and Miu Hirano burst onto the scene. Questions were being asked whether they could halt China’s domination of the women’s game. Naturally, their strong performances started to steal the headlines, the spotlight very much on them. However, at the same time, China were nurturing their very own Millennial star in the making: the combative, determined and powerful attacker, Sun Yingsha.

Then just 16 years of age, Sun took no more than her debut display on the ITTF World Tour to display her quality to the world. Winning the 2017 Japan Open women’s singles title, the media and everyone associated to the sport started to sit up and take notice.

Her opponent in the final, then world no.5 Chen Meng spoke about what a composed athlete Sun was:

“She has her own style, she plays at pace and is mature with her game. Older players feel pressure when playing someone younger but I prepared well mentally, I managed to give everything I’ve got, but she was the worthy winner.” Chen Meng

From day one, Sun Yingsha’s greatest asset has to be her mental strength – how nothing seems to faze her. No matter who she plays, her ideals remain the same.

Shortly after winning in Japan, Sun was at it again, saving match points against compatriot and fellow Chinese wonder star Wang Manyu to win the 2017 World Junior Championships.

Relentless in her pursuit of glory, she followed up this success by winning the women’s singles gold as well as the mixed team gold with compatriot Wang Chuqin at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

Doing so, she matched China’s Gu Yuting’s record of holding the two major junior titles at the same time. Yuting had previously won the Youth Olympic Games in 2010 in Singapore and the World Junior Championships in Rabat in 2013, but Sun – in her style of being different – did it in consecutive years.

And yet, all this came after a series of setbacks about which she was not about to hide from:

“During my preparations for the 2018 Asian Games, I lost to Kasumi Ishikawa and Yui Hamamoto. I felt very depressed at that time. Our coach Li Sun (Head Coach of China Women’s Team) punished me to run 10,000 meters. As I was running, I finally came around and thought: What does this matter? The stronger players all think it is normal to lose some matches when you are young.” Sun Yingsha

Moving in to the spotlight

Since then, Sun has continued her meteoric rise across seasons and tournaments with sensational performances. For instance, winning the 2019 Japan Open in Sapporo gave her the unique record of being the only player to have won twice on the ITTF World Tour after starting as a qualifier.

Her compact style of play, with over the table and near the net both being assets on the attack, enables Sun to keep breaking and making such records with remarkable consistency. Her speed of thought is matched by quick feet and outstanding positional sense. Indeed, she’s always prepared to step around the backhand to execute her deadly forehands.

While her progress has been well-documented, so has her ability to enhance the rivalry with her Japanese competitors. Last November, Mima Ito had just won the 2018 Swedish Open by beating Chinese elites Liu Shiwen, Ding Ning and Zhu Yuling quite convincingly. With Ito’s reputation the highest in her career to date, people were starting to tip her as a serious challenger at the Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships.

In round three, however, she would have to meet no other than Sun Yingsha, who might have been just as determined to win as to avenge her compatriot’s prior defeats. Sun was totally prepared for Ito and executed her tactics to perfection. The return of serve, her skill over the table completely nullified the first three attacking strokes of Ito. Here you can see just how she secured this stunning victory in Budapest:

It is also fascinating to know that her progress has not just been limited to the singles game. Playing doubles with a few select partners, Sun’s last four results in major competition are a sight to behold. She has won gold medals at the World Table Tennis Championships and the 2019 Qatar Open with Wang Manyu. Add to that silver medals at the 2019 Japan Open and Hungarian Open with Wang Manyu and Chen Meng respectively. Sun is very much a team player too.

The might of a robust mind

What remains an extremely interesting aspect of Sun’s rise, is how she has managed to avoid being in the shadow of her immensely successful senior compatriots. Over the last couple of years, Sun has faced all of the highest-ranked opponents at major tournaments, and yet she keeps coming through her battles with flying colours.

At the 2019 Australian Open, she defeated Ding Ning in comprehensive fashion, winning the final 4-0 – and the first game by a crushing 11-1 scoreline. This came at a time where the “Queen of Hearts” was transforming into the “Queen of Comebacks” but against the rising Sun she had no dice.

Speaking at a recent interview, Sun had the following to say when quizzed about the influence of having Liu Shiwen and Ding Ning as her compatriots and opponents.

“I like to watch their interviews sometimes. For sure their experience is a very good material for me to learn from. It is not about if my experience is the same as theirs, but the least I can do is to understand what they say and start thinking like they do. Right now I am only 18 years old. All I need to do is to fight. If I want to become the no.1 player in Team China one day, I believe I will need to have a high level both in terms of my skills and mentality. My plan for the coming years is just to fight with more courage.” Sun Yingsha

It is this kind of statement that one wants when you see a prodigy coming through the ranks. Sun’s senior compatriots are sure to be swelling with pride as they see yet another Chinese woman becoming a force to be reckoned with at the highest levels of international table tennis.

However, sometimes they might not enjoy just how robust she can be – as evidenced here when Liu Shiwen was made to suffer by the immense quality of Sun’s topspin forehands.

This was another example of a match where even though the odds were stacked against the younger Chinese, she did not let that affect her for one second.

The 18-year-old has never been shy to call a spade a spade, as was shown again in this quote from her interview with the Chinese media. She was asked to rate herself out of 100 at the China National Championships:

“95. I cannot give myself 100. I hope I can still make progress and fight to reach my goals. I am satisfied with my performance here. I won all of my matches except in the mixed doubles first round.” Sun Yingsha

With that kind of mental balance, the table tennis fraternity knows that for Sun Yingsha, her destiny is in her hands alone. China’s next big thing is already here and now the world knows it too.

All secured first places in their initial stage groups; at the quarter-final stage it was success against the outfits that had ended the day as runners up, precedence was asserted.

In the men’s team event, the top seeds, the Brazilian trio comprising Hugo Calderano, Eric Jouti and Gustavo Tsuboi recorded a 3-0 win in opposition to Paraguay’s Marcelo Aguirre, Santiago Osorio and Alejandra Toranzos. Similarly, Argentina’s Gaston Alto, Horacio Cifuentes and Pablo Tabachnik showed no charity when facing Puerto Rico’s Brian Afanador, Daniel Gonzalez and Angel Naranjo.

Meanwhile, for the United States trio of Kanak Jha, Nikhil Kumar and Nicholas Tio, as well as for Cuba’s Jorge Campos, Livan Martinez and Andy Pereira, life was only marginally more testing.

The United States recorded a 3-1 win in opposition to the Dominican Republic’s Samuel Galvez, Emil Santos and Wu Jiaji; by the same margin Cuba ended the hopes of Canada’s Jeremy Hazin, Marko Medjugorac and Eugene Wang.

The players to cause the problems for the victors were principally the medallists earlier in the week in the men’s singles events; for the Dominican Republic Wu Jiaji beat Nikhil Kumar (11-2, 11-3, 11-5), for Canada, Eugene Wang partnered Marko Medjugorac to doubles success in opposition to Jorge Campos and Livan Martinez (13-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-4).

Success for Cuba but they came mightily close to defeat; the score-line does not necessarily reflect the intensity of the fixture. In the third match of the engagement, Livan Martinez needed the full five games to beat Marko Medjugorac (11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6), as did Jorge Campos against Jeremy Hazin in the contest that brought proceedings to a conclusion. Tension mounting, Jorge Campos withstood a spirited fightback by the Canadian to emerge successful by the minimal two point margin in the decider (11-8, 11-5, 10-12, 9-11, 11-9).

A dramatic contest, in the counterpart women’s team quarter-finals, decisive results were the order of the day, not one individual match was surrendered by the winners.

Impressively, the United States trio formed Amy Wang, Wu Yue and Lily Zhang accounted for Cuba’s Daniela Fonseca, Idalys Lovat and Lizdainet Rodriquez; Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz, Melanie Diaz and Daniely Rios ended the hopes of Argentina’s Camila Argüelles, Ana Codina and Candela Molero.

Likewise, Brazil’s Caroline Kumahara, Bruna Takahashi and Jessica Yamada overcame Chile’s Judith Morales, Daniela Ortega and Paulina Vega; Canada’s Alicia Côté, Ivy Liao and Zhang Mo halted any aspirations harboured by Mexico’s Clio Barcenas, Monica Muñoz and Yadira Silva.

Notably, in the concluding match of the fixture, Zhang Mo beat Yadira Silva (9-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-6, 11-9) and thus avenged the defeat experienced earlier in the week when she had suffered in the second round of the women’s singles event, securing just one game (10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8, 11-8).

On the day that closes the curtain in Lima, play commences on Saturday 10th August at 10.00 am (local time), the finals’ programme begins at 5.00 pm (local time); there is no third place fixture, two bronze medals are awarded.