T.League

The T.League (Japanese: Tリーグ; Romaji: T.Rīgu) or Nojima T.League (Japanese: ノジマTリーグ) is the premier table tennis league of Japan which began in 2018. It is the first professional table tennis league in Japan.[1] There are four teams in the men's division and four in the women's division.

Teams

Men's teams

Name	Prefecture	Head coach
T.T. Saitama (T.T彩たま)	Saitama Prefecture	Ryūsuke Sakamoto (坂本竜介)
Kinoshita Meister Tokyo (木下マイスター東京)	Tokyo	Qiu Jianxin (邱建新)
Okayama Rivets (岡山リベッツ)	Okayama Prefecture	Kōsuke Shiraga (白神宏佑)
Ryukyu Asteeda (琉球アスティーダ)	Okinawa Prefecture	Kazuhiro Chang (張一博)

Women's teams

Name	Prefecture	Head coach
Kinoshita Abyell Kanagawa (木下アビエル神奈川)	Kanagawa Prefecture	Liu Yanjun (劉燕軍)
Top Otome Pingpongs Nagoya (トップおとめピンポンズ名古屋)	Aichi Prefecture	Hideo Fujikawa (藤川英雄)
Nissay Red Elf (日本生命レッドエルフ)	Osaka Prefecture	Yasukazu Murakami (村上恭和)
Nippon Paint Mallets (日本ペイントマレッツ)	Osaka Prefecture	Takahiro Mihara (三原孝博)

Stadiums

• 
  Takeda Teva Ocean Arena in Nagoya, Aichi
• 
  Okayama Budokan in Okayama
• 
  Ginowan City Gymnasium in Ginowan, Okinawa
• 
  Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium in Namba, Osaka
• 
  Wing Hat Kasukabe in Kasukabe, Saitama
• 
  Koshigaya Municipal General Gymnasium in Koshigaya, Saitama
• 
  Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Sumida, Tokyo
• 
  Arena Tachikawa Tachihi in Tachikawa, Tokyo

Format and rules

Each team match features one doubles match and at least three singles matches. If the score after four matches is 2–2, an extra-time, single-game "victory match" will determine the winner.[1] T.League rules differ from international table tennis rules.[2]

Match 1	Doubles	Best of 3	Score starts at 6–6 for the final game Play to 11 points only (i.e. 11–10 wins) for non-final games
Match 2	Singles	Best of 5
Match 3
Match 4
"Victory match"		1 game

Match 1 players may not play in Match 2. Matches 2, 3, and 4 must feature different players for both teams.[2]

Results

Men's division

Season	Winner	Runner-Up	MVP	Best doubles pair
2018–19[3][4]	Tokyo (14W–7L)	Okayama (12W–9L)	Season & 2nd half: Jun Mizutani[5] (Tokyo) 1st half: Tomokazu Harimoto[6] (Tokyo)	Masataka Morizono Jin Ueda (Okayama)
2019–20			1st half: Hou Yingchao[7] (Tokyo)

Women's division

Season	Winner	Runner-Up	MVP	Best doubles pair
2018–19[3][4]	Nissay (18W–3L)	Kanagawa (13W–8L)	Season & 1st half: Hina Hayata[6] (Nissay) 2nd half: Kasumi Ishikawa[5] (Kanagawa)	Chang Chenchen Jiang Hui (Nissay)
2019–20			1st half: Suthasini Sawettabut[7] (Nippon Paint)

References

1. Nagatsuka, Kaz (October 23, 2018). "T.League primed to kick off inaugural season". The Japan Times. Retrieved September 19, 2019.
2. "About Tリーグ". T.League (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 January 2020.
3. "ノジマＴリーグ 2018-2019シーズン 順位表". T.League (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 January 2020.
4. "ノジマTリーグ 2018-2019シーズン　優勝 および シーズン表彰 受賞記念グッズ 受注販売開始のお知らせ". T.League (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 January 2020.
5. "「ノジマＴリーグ 2018-2019シーズン後期　ノジマMVP賞」を 男子・水谷隼（KM東京）、女子・石川佳純（KA神奈川）が受賞". T.League (in Japanese). 13 March 2019. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
6. "「ノジマＴリーグ 2018-2019シーズン前期　ノジマMVP賞」を 男子・張本智和（KM東京）、女子・早田ひな（日本生命）が受賞". T.League (in Japanese). 29 January 2019. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
7. "ノジマＴリーグ 2019-2020シーズン レギュラーシーズン　「ノジマＴリーグ 2019-2020シーズン前期　ノジマMVP賞」を男子・ホウ エイチョウ（KM東京）女子・サウェータブット スターシニー（ニッペM）が受賞". T.League (in Japanese). 23 January 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2020.

Official site

• Official website (in Japanese)