The International Table Tennis Federation has agreed a deal with TATA for the Chinese door manufacturer to sponsor the next three editions of its World Championships.
The deal covers the 2018 to 2020 editions of the tournament. TATA will serve as a major sponsor and the official door of the event.
TATA sponsored last year’s World Championships in Dusseldorf, Germany and has now committed to the event on a long-term basis. During last year’s tournament, TATA created a series of videos with the ITTF featuring players trying various trickshots around a miniature TATA door.
The TATA Trickshot Challenge will return at this year’s event, which takes place in Halmstad, Sweden from April 29 to May 6. Grand slam champion Liu Guoliang and former world team champion Feng Tianwei (pictured) will feature in this year’s series.
TATA Wooden Door’s deputy general manager Zhang Yan said: “Our first partnership with ITTF at the 2017 World Championships was a great success, seeing our logo being shown on the centre court throughout the tournament was a proud moment for our company.
“We also had many interesting videos from the World Championships, such as the trickshot videos from the world’s best table tennis players. In fact, we still receive a lot of engagement on social media because of the videos, and fans sending through their versions of the trickshot videos and tagging us online even in October.
“The coming three years is a crucial period for TATA, and we hope that the ITTF will lead TATA Wooden Door to the international stage through this partnership and let friends outside China see that our doors encompass a lot of thinking and wisdom behind it. We hope to push our Chinese products worldwide. This is the vision of TATA Wooden Door, and the future we envision for the ‘Made in China’ label.”