体坛英语新闻：ITTF helps Nigeria upgrade table tennis tournament

LAGOS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- World table tennis governing body ITTF on Wednesday upgraded the annual Nigeria Open in 2019 to Challenge Plus.

The upgrade means more prize money, world ranking points, better playing conditions and TV production.

The Nigeria Open kicks off from Aug. 8-12 in Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub.

Nine cities have joined the Challenge Series, including the Nigeria, DPR Korea, Oman, Portugal, Paraguay and Canada Opens.

Nigeria Open was rewarded for its exceptionally strong Challenge Series events over the past few years and the tournament has been allocated a Challenge Plus status.

The 17 events for 2019, includes nine cities that have never hosted a Challenge Series event and will be split into two tiers for the first time, with the top tier being called Challenge Plus.

The Challenge Series is the Tour below the premier ITTF World Tour, with its goal of providing players from around the world valuable playing opportunities to get the experience and world ranking points to take the next step to playing ITTF World Tour events.

ITTF CEO Steve Dainton said the increased amount of ITTF Challenge Series events shows the increased interested in organizing table tennis events and the proven success of the change of world ranking at the start of 2018.

"These 17 events added to our 13 ITTF World Tour events means that we have 30 tour events in 2019, which provides our players with immense value and fits in with the ITTF's strategy of having a fully professionally run global tour by 2021," he added.

Mexico is one of the new names in the second tier of events together with fellow newcomers Morocco, Turkey, Serbia and Indonesia. Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Thailand, Poland and Belarus all successfully retain their status as Challenge Series hosts for 2019.

ITTF Head of World Cup & Challenge Series Zena Sim added that it is great seeing the immense interest from so many countries around the world to host a Challenge Series event.

Challenge Series events are a perfect platform for new hosts to organize a world-class event, and a good platform for new players to get their first experience playing at international level, he added.