HAIKOU, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The 2019 T2 Diamond Table Tennis League will hold event two of its second season in Haikou from September 26th -29th, 2019. Sixteen male and sixteen female athletes will compete in 32 matches.

In its second season, the prestigious T2 Diamond, organized in collaboration with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), features 32 of the world's best men's and women's players, with a total prize purse of 1.5 million U.S. dollars.

The refined and polished T2 Diamond will start at the very place where the journey first began. The opening event in July will be held in Johor Bahru (Malaysia), the city which successfully hosted the inaugural season in 2017. Event two in September will take place at Mission Hills Resort, in the iconic city of Haikou in Hainan province, while the season-ending showpiece in November will be hosted in T2 Diamond's headquarters of Singapore.

The competition which awards bonus World Ranking Points to all competing players is poised to shake up the table tennis scene prior to the Olympic year. With only two more ITTF World Tour events (Qatar Open in March and the China Open in May) before the qualification cut-off for the first T2 Diamond event this year, a sprint is underway for players to rise to the top of the ITTF World Tour standings.