The 2018 ITTF Men's World Cup was a

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

competition held in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, from 19 to 21 October 2018. It was the 39th edition of the ITTF-sanctioned event, and the third time that it had been staged in Paris. In the final, China's

Fan Zhendong Fan Zhendong (; born 22 January 1997) is a Chinese professional table tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 1 for men's singles by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). After joining the Chinese National Table Tennis Team i ...

defeated Timo Boll of Germany, 4–1, to win his second World Cup title.

Qualification

In total, 20 players qualified for the World Cup: * 18 players from the five Continental Cups held during 2018 * A host association representative * A wild card, selected by the ITTF A maximum of two players from each association could qualify. As reigning

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, ...

, China's Ma Long was invited to take part, but withdrew prior to the event. His place was taken by

Lin Gaoyuan Lin Gaoyuan (simplified Chinese: 林高远; traditional Chinese: 林高遠; pinyin: ''Lín Gāoyuǎn''; born 19 March 1995) is a Chinese table tennis player. He was the Asian Cup champion in 2017, and was a member of the Chinese teams that took ...

. ;Notes

Competition format

The tournament consisted of two stages: a preliminary group stage and a knockout stage. The players seeded 9 to 20 were drawn into four groups, with three players in each group. The top two players from each group joined the top eight seeded players in the second stage of the competition, which consisted of a knockout draw.

Seeding

The seeding list was based on the official ITTF world ranking for October 2018.

Preliminary stage

The preliminary group stage took place on 19 October, with the top two players in each group progressing to the main draw.

Main draw

The knockout stage took place from 20–21 October.

References

External links

Tournament page on ITTF website
{{World championships in 2018 Men World Cup (men) Table tennis competitions in France International sports competitions hosted by Paris ITTF Men's World Cup ITTF Men's World Cup