by Simon Daish

The news was confirmed on the official T2 APAC Facebook page on Sunday 5th June and comes following the news that another Chinese star Ding Ning, who recently defended her Women’s Singles title at the Liebherr 2017 World Championships, will also be competing in the league.

Wang Manyu was crowned Girls’ Singles champion at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Shanghai before going on to defend her title one year later in the French town of La Roche-sur-Yon at the 2015 World Junior Championships.

She has since gone on to claim fantastic victories over the likes of Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen and Miu Hirano in the 2016 season of the Chinese Super League and Wang Manyu also impressed at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open where she finished in the runners-up position in the Women’s Singles competition.

The upcoming Chinese star is also an fantastic doubles player and she demonstrated her excellent teamwork skills to great effect at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open and Seamaster 2017 ITTF-Asian Championships, achieving gold and silver medal position finishes in the Women’s Doubles competitions at the respective events.

Shi Xunyao is another exciting up-and-coming player for China, who will gain valuable senior competition experience by participating in the T2 APAC.

In what was considered to be a disappointing campaign for China, Shi Xunyao was her country’s brightest contestant at the Sun International 2016 World Junior Championships in Cape Town, South Africa and her Girls’ Singles title victory was China’s sole gold medal at the tournament.

The T2 APAC will feature a unique format with each match consisting of a 24 minute time limit as players aim to claim as many games as possible in the space of time. All players will play in separate but concurrent singles and mixed-team championships in a league format. All players will go through a draft selection process which will be selected by Team Captains.