The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has confirmed the 20 male & female players who will be competing at the Uncle Pop 2018 ITTF Women’s World Cup & the Liebherr 2018 ITTF Men’s World Cup later this year.
- Uncle Pop 2018 ITTF Women’s World Cup – 28-30 Sep 2018 Chengdu (CHN)
- Liebherr 2018 ITTF Men’s World Cup – 19-21 Oct 2018. Paris (FRA)
World number ones ZHU Yuling (CHN) & FAN Zhendong (CHN) will head the seeding at the Women’s & Men’s World Cup respectively and will both be fighting for their second title alongside other top players who have qualified through their Continental Cups earlier this year.
Men’s Defending Champion Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) & 2018 ITTF-European Cup Champion Timo BOLL (GER) who ended China’s chance for an eighth consecutive title last year in Liege will be leading the European charge in Paris while Romania’s Bernadette SZOCS & Elizabeta SAMARA lead the European women’s fight for the title in Chengdu.
Reigning women’s World & Olympic Champion DING Ning will also be making her appearance to compete for her third Women’s World Cup title whereas her male counterpart MA Long (CHN) has withdrawn from the Men’s World Cup & is replaced by his compatriot LIN Gaoyuan who will be making his second World Cup appearance.
The Japanese line-up of 2016 Women’s World Cup Champion Miu HIRANO & Kasumi ISHIKAWA as well as 15-year-old Tomokazu HARIMOTO & Koki NIWA will also all be eyeing for the titles at the World Cups.
With their strong performance in 2018 Korea DPR’s KIM Song I & Frenchman Emmanual LEBESSON were awarded the wildcard to compete in the Women’s & Men’s World Cup respectively.
The ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cups will start off with players seeded 9 – 20 playing round robin in the group stage to fight for their chance to join the top 8 players in the second stage where a knockout system will be played to determine the winner.
The ITTF World Cups are the second most prestigious events on the international table tennis calendar where only 17 of the top table tennis players who have qualified through their respective Continental Cups together with the current World Champions one host player and a wildcard can compete for the prestigious title that counts towards the Grand Slam Title (Olympic Games World Championships World Cup).
The ITTF Men’s World Cup will be in its 39th edition in 2018 since its inauguration in 1980 in Hong Kong whereas the Women’s World Cup will be in its 22nd year since it first started in 1996 in Hong Kong as well.
Fans around the world will be able to watch the events live on Eurosport and other top networks across the world reaching over 100 countries and live on tv.ITTF.com.
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