Astana to host President’s Cup Table Tennis Tournament

The WTT Star Contender Astana 2026 President’s Cup will be held in Kazakh capital, El.kz reports.

Who will compete in Astana

The President’s Cup will take place from 15 to 20 September and will gather  approximately 160 athletes from 29 countries.

Among the participants are 2015 World Championship silver medallist Fang Bo, who represents Nomad Table Tennis Academy, and Egypt’s multiple international tournament winner Omar Mohamed Assar. This is the second time the tournament has been held in Astana.

Athletes’ views

Fang Bo, who currently coaches young Kazakhstani players at the academy, noted the high level of motivation among his students.

“They hardly take any time off and devote all their attention to training,” he said, adding that they train even more intensively than he does himself.

Egyptian athlete Omar Mohamed Assar is visiting Astana for the first time. and impressed by the level of preparation at the Kazakhstan National University of Sport. The athlete compared the level of competition among the participants with that of tournaments in Germany and France, describing it as highly competitive.

Why the tournament matters for Kazakhstan

Director of Nomad Table Tennis Academy Ruslan Zhetubayev, said that this year the tournament was included in the World Table Tennis calendar for the first time. The organisers are already looking ahead: in 2027, they plan to hold the President’s Cup in August and seek to elevate its status.

According to Zhetubayev, the academy cooperates with a partner school in China, where young Kazakhstani players attend training camps. There, they gain experience with a training system that he described as one of the key resources for the development of table tennis in Kazakhstan.

Vice Minister of Tourism and Sports Serik Zharasbayev emphasised that a tournament of this scale not only contributes to promoting table tennis among young people, but also helps raise the performance level of domestic athletes through direct competition with world-class players.