Chinese fans, media query empty seats at ‘sold-out' ITTF World Table Tennis Championships
Chinese media outlets have queried the ticket sales at the supposedly sold-out ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in Doha after some poorly attended matches during the opening weekend.
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Banks of empty seats were seen at Lusail Sports Arena and Qatar University for a large number of matches, although fans did show up at the multipurpose hall in Lusail when China's Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha beat Liang Jishan and Amy Wang of the United States in their mixed doubles match on Sunday.
In other matches, including when French duo Simon Gauzy and Prithika Pavade overcame German pair Patrick Franziska and Annett Kaufmann at Lusail on Sunday afternoon, hardly any seats were filled at the 15,300-seat arena.
Scenes on the opening two days of the nine-day tournament were in stark contrast to Petra Sorling's claim earlier this month that all the tickets at the World Championships had sold out – the ITTF president had said she was 'shocked', suggesting it was a rare occurrence for sports events held in the Middle East.
Chinese fans did show up to watch China's mixed doubles pair of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha. Photo: WTT
'This was a unique phenomenon, we hope to study the causes further,' said the 54-year-old Swede.
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