"Love Sauce" has a new identity and serves as the general manager of WTT Japan

On the 27th Beijing time, the World Table Tennis Professional Federation (WTT World Table Tennis Federation) announced that it had appointed Japanese table tennis legend Ai Fukuhara as the first general manager of Japan. The work of "Love Sauce" includes creating event hosting opportunities for WTT, promoting sponsorship and investment, supporting the development of table tennis, and promoting WTT's media rights sales in Japan. This "good friend of the Chinese table tennis team" will lead the development of "the biggest opponent of the Chinese table tennis team".

As the world's second largest table tennis market, Japan plays an important role in the development of this program. At present, a number of Japanese players have ranked among the top 10 in the world rankings, emerged on the international stage, and even challenged the "hegemon" Chinese team, which is one of the biggest opponents of national table tennis. During last year's Tokyo Olympics, table tennis attracted more than 21 million spectators in Japan, with a viewership coverage rate of 54.4% of the Japanese population.

As one of Japan's famous table tennis stars, Ai Fukuhara will lead WTT's strategic development in Japan in her new role. Affectionately known as "Love Sauce" by fans, she became a professional player at the age of 10 and was the youngest player in the Japanese national team at that time. Ai Fukuhara participated in the Olympic Games four times during her service, and led the team to the second place in the women's team at the London Olympic Games in 2012, winning the Olympic medal for the first time in Japanese table tennis, and she won the bronze medal in the women's team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. In addition, Ai Fukuhara also won six World Table Tennis Championships medals during her career. At the same time, she is also a friend and girlfriend of many well-known Chinese players, and has been described by Chinese fans as the "group favorite" of national table tennis. In October 2018, Ai Fukuhara announced his retirement, ending his career as an athlete.

After his appointment, Ai Fukuhara said: "It is an honor to be invited by Liu Guoliang, Chairman of the WTT World Table Tennis Federation Council, and Steve Denton, CEO of the ITTF Group, to serve as General Manager of WTT Japan. I have been involved in table tennis as a player since I was a child and I am very excited by the recognition of my achievements and experience by the WTT World Table Tennis Federation. I will work for the players and contribute to meeting their most basic and urgent needs. ”

In addition, Ai Fukuhara also said that he will have the opportunity to support the players and the entire table tennis family from different aspects, and strive to make table tennis more dynamic, "I think that WTT events have truly achieved 'player-centricity', which has benefited the players a lot." At the same time, the WTT's venue layout is also very cool. I started playing table tennis at the age of 3 and have learned a lot from it over the years and also want to share my experience with the new generation of players and focus on their important needs. ”

Steve Denton, CEO of the ITTF Group and director of the WTT World Table Tennis Federation, said he was delighted to partner with a well-known player like Ai Fukuhara: "We believe that Japan is a market with a lot of potential from a sports and business development perspective. I hope that the WTT event will be settled in Japan soon, and Ai Fukuhara is the best person to help us achieve this goal, and we are very much looking forward to working with her to further develop table tennis." ”