2011 U.S. Table Tennis Open comes to Milwaukee

The 2011 U.S. Table Tennis Open, the premier table tennis event in North America, will be held in Milwaukee June 30 through July 4 at the Frontier Airlines Convention Center in downtown Milwaukee.
“Table tennis is one of the fastest-growing sports in America and it is rapidly gaining popularity here in Milwaukee,” said Linda Leaf, chair of the U.S. Open Organizing Committee. “We are thrilled to host this prestigious international event as a chance to showcase the excitement of this Olympic sport.”
The annual international tournament will feature over 100 tables with over 700 elite athletes from 15 countries or more. Men, women and junior players will compete in over 60 different events at various skill levels.
Spectators are welcome and tickets will be available at the door.
In conjunction with the Open, the Milwaukee Art Museum will host a special Ping Pong Diplomacy event which will celebrate the 1971 table tennis exhibition in Beijing that brought together diplomatic enemies, China and the United States for the first time in decades.  A Chinese delegation will visit Milwaukee for a ping pong exhibition featuring players from that 1971 historic Beijing event and will attend a black tie dinner at the Milwaukee Art Museum on July 1.
This celebration is part of Milwaukee’s 2011 ‘Summer of China’ designated by Mayor Tom Barrett in honor of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s summer-long series of exhibitions spotlighting Chinese art and architecture. In addition, A Para Table Tennis Open for players with physical disabilities from around the world will be held simultaneously with the U.S. Table Tennis Open.