The Table Tennis World Cup has been held annually since 1980. There had been only men's singles until the inauguration of women's singles in 1996 and team competitions in 1990. The team competitions, the World Team Cup, were canceled until the relaunch in 2007, and now held in odd-numbered years. The competitions are sanctioned by
International Table Tennis Federation
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national table tennis associations. The role of the ITTF includes overseeing rules and regulations and seeking technological improvement for the sport of table tenni ...
(ITTF) and classified as R1 in rating weightings, B2 in bonus weightings in the ITTF world ranking. Since 2021, the event has been replaced with the WTT Cup Finals.
Competition
Men's and Women's World Cups
Participants of the competition are composed of:
* The current holder of the World Cup.
* The
World Champion
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
.
* The champion player or the strongest current player from each of the 6 continents (
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
,
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
,
Europe,
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
,
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the C ...
and
Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million as ...
).
* 1 player from the host association.
* The top 8 players from the world ranking list.
* 2 wild card selections.
** 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.
World Team Cup
* Top 7 associations at the preceding
World Team Championships.
* 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.
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.
The 2009 World Cup was divided into 3 stages. All matches were the best of 7 games.
#The Preliminary Stage- Intercontinental Cup: The 4 continental representatives from Africa, Latin America, North America and Oceania compete on a group basis with all the members of the group. The winner of this group 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 of the semi-finals competing for the third place.
World Team Cup
All team matches are played on the Olympic System with a maximum of 4 singles and 1 doubles. And all individual matches of a team match are the best of 5 games.
#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 on round-robin. Only one team survives.
#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.
Winners
Men's singles
ITTF World Cup
WTT Cup Finals
Women's singles
ITTF World Cup
WTT Cup Finals
Men's doubles
Women's doubles
Men's team
Performance by nations in Men's World Team
Women's team
Performance by nations in Women's World Team
References
External links
*
ITTF World Cup Page
{{Main world cups
Table tennis competitions
World cups
Recurring sporting events established in 1980