The Table Tennis World Cup has been held annually since 1980. There had only been men's singles until the start of women's singles in 1996 and team competitions in 1990. The team competitions were canceled until the relaunch in 2007, and now held in odd-numbered years. The competitions are sanctioned by International Table Tennis Federation and classified as R1 in rating weightings, B2 in bonus weightings in the ITTF world ranking.[1]
In the years 2021-2023, the event has been suspended. A new WTT event, WTT Cup Finals, began in 2021, which is the season-ending championship of the WTT. WTT stated that the winners of the WTT Cup Finals would win the prestigious ITTF World Cup trophies in March 2021, but the winners have been actually presented with WTT Cup Finals specific trophies since the inaugural edition, and the event has been renamed to simply WTT Finals since 2023, making it a pure season-ending event.
ITTF World Cup returned with an innovative Mixed Team format in 2023 in Chengdu, and ITTF Singles World Cup returned in 2024, in Macao, China.
Competitions
Men's and women's world cups
For 2024 singles world cup, participants of the competition composed of:[2]
The top 4 player from each of the 5 continents' (Africa, Asia, Europe, America and Oceania) Continental Cup. If a continent does not have this tournament scheduled in 2024 prior to the World Cup, player selection will be based on the World Ranking.
24 additional players shall be selected from the World Ranking.
There shall be no more 4 players from an association, except an association with players qualified from items World Champion and U19 World Champion may compete with up to 6 players.
For previous editions, participants of the competition are composed of:[3]
No more than 2 players from an association unless a third is invited as a wild card.
If the World Champion and the World Cup title holder is the same player, or the host association has a player qualified as title holder or from the world ranking, the vacancy goes to the next highest eligible player on the world ranking list.
If the team of the host association is not on the top 7 list, the team of the host association and 4 teams from continental federations would be represented at the event.
Mixed Team World Cup
18 teams comprising a minimum of three and maximum of four players per gender.
Each team shall be accompanied by a non-playing coach.
Maximum 10 teams, the winners of either the men's or women's competitions at the last continental team championship.
1 host team if not already qualified.
Minimum of 7 teams will be determined based on the qualification and seeding list.
The 1st stage, Group stage: The 48 players are divided into 16 equal groups, with all the members of a group playing each other, and the group winners advance towards the 2nd stage.
The highest-ranked player will be placed in Group 1, the 2nd highest in Group 2, the 3rd highest in Group 3 and the 4th highest in Group 4; the remaining players will be drawn into the other groups using a modified snake system 4 at a time in ranking order. Players from the same association will be drawn into separate groups.
Matches of 1st stage shall be 4 games (result 4-0, 3-1 or 2-2). Final ranking will be determined in terms of Regulation 3.7.5, excluding match points, and based solely on the ratios of wins to losses first in games and then points, as far as is necessary to resolve the order.
The 2nd Stage- Knockout:
The draw for players will be as follows:
First-place finisher of Group 1 will be placed in position 1.
First-place finisher of Group 2 will be placed in position 16.
First-place finishers of Groups 3 and 4 will be drawn into positions 8 and 9.
First-place finishers of Groups 5 to 16 will be drawn randomly into the remaining positions.
Matches of stage 2 shall be the best of 7 games.
Mixed Team World Cup
There will be a total of 56 matches (32 in Stage 1 + 24 in Stage 2). In stage 1 the teams will be divided into 4 groups (2 groups of 4 and 2 groups of 5), with all the members of a group playing each other.
For stage 1, the highest-ranked team will be placed in Group 1, the 2nd highest in Group 2, the 3rd highest in Group 3 and the 4th highest in Group 4; the remaining teams will be drawn into the groups 2 at a time in seeding order, with the exception teams 17 and 18 will be drawn into groups 3 and 4.
In stage 2, the group winners and runners-up from Stage 1 will compete in a single group with all the members of a group playing each other, with the exception that teams having played each other in stage 1 will not play again, but the results will carry forward.
Former playing system
Men's and Women's World Cups
The playing system is determined by the executive committee on recommendation by the competition department.[3] The 2009 World Cup was divided into 3 stages. All matches were the best of 7 games.[4]
The preliminary stage, Intercontinental Cup: The 4 continental representatives from Africa, Latin America, North America and Oceania compete on a group basis. The winner joins the remaining 15 players in the 1st stage.
The 1st stage, Group stage: The 16 players are divided into 4 equal groups, with all the members of a group playing each other, and the group winners and runners-up advance towards the 2nd stage.
The highest-ranked player is placed in Group A, the 2nd highest in Group B, the 3rd highest in Group C and the 4th highest in Group D. The remaining players are drawn into the 4 groups at a time in ranking order.
If there are 2 players from the same association, they will be drawn into separate groups, but the 3rd player from the same association may be drawn into any group.
The 2nd stage, Knockout:
Quarter-finals: 4 quarter finals (Q1-Q4) are arranged according to both the groups and the rankings in the 1st stage. Q1-Q4 are as follows: A1 vs. B2, C1 vs. D2, D1 vs. C2, and B1 vs. A2.
Semi-finals: the matches are winner of Q1 vs. winner of Q2, and winner of Q3 vs. winner of Q4.
Winners of semi-finals enter the final, with the losers competing for the third place.
Team World Cup
All team matches are played as the Olympic system with a maximum of 4 singles and 1 doubles. All individual matches of a team match are the best of 5 games.[3][5]
Intercontinental Cup: The 4 teams from continental federations not qualified by their ranking at the preceding World Team Championships shall compete in an Intercontinental Cup played in round-robin.
Knockout: 7 teams qualified from World Team Championships and the host are seeded, based on latest ITTF World Team Ranking. The winner of the Intercontinental Cup play a match against the lowest seeded of the other 8 teams, other than the host association's team. The winner of this match shall promote to final knockout. The top 4 seeds are separated in different matches in quarter-finals.
