ITTF Mixed Team World Cup 2025...

[AJ Scott]

This starts tonight (Saturday) at 10 pm and goes on for a week till next
Sunday:
https://xtresults.ittf.com/teamseventInfo?selectedTab=Stages%201-2%20(Groups)&eventId=3263
[Group standings and schedule for tonight & tomorrow].  This is being
held in Chengdu, China, so when looking at the schedule, remember they
are currently 13 hrs. ahead of us.

2 tables are in play and both will be livestreamed at the ITTFWorld
YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@ITTFWorld/streams.  What is the
format? Here's an ITTF write-up that gives an overview:
https://www.ittf.com/2025/11/29/16-teams-1-trophy-draw-ceremony-sets-stage-for-ittf-mixed-team-world-cup-2025/.
And here's a link to a document that spells out everything:
https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ITTF-Mixed-Team-World-Cup-2025-Competition-Details-Playing-system.pdf.


Team seeding list:
https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Seeding-List-ITTF-XTWC-2025.pdf.
As you will see, the top 5 seeds are China, Japan, Korea, Germany and
Chinese Taipei.  There are 16 teams in total and Croatia is at the
bottom of the list.  Team USA is 3rd from the bottom.  All 16 teams will
be divided up into 4 groups.  Team USA is in Group 3 with Korea, Chinese
Taipei, and Sweden.  The top 2 finishers of each group in Stage 1 will
progress to the Stage 2 round robin and then 4 teams will advance from
there to Stage 3, the semifinals.

Penholders...  It'll be Felix Lebrun, Dang Qiu and Wong Chun Ting on the
men's side and Vicky Strassburger of Brazil on the women's side.

Pips-out/anti-spin players...  For the men, it'll be Mattias Falck
(short pips/fh) and Hamilton Yamane (pronounced "AH-meal-tone
ya-MA-nee") of Brazil (chopper).  For the women, it'll be more, as per
usual--Itoh Mima (short pips/bh), Choi Hyojoo of Korea (short pips/bh),
Sabine Winter (anti-spin/bh), Yuan Jianan of France (short pips/fh),
Manika Batra & YD Ghorpade of India (both long pips/bh), Liu Yangzi of
AUS (short pips/bh), Linda Bergstrom of Sweden (chopper), Jessica
Reyes-Lai of the US of A (short pips/bh), and Mateja Jeger (short
pips/bh) & Ivana Malobabic of Croatia (chopper).

Americans...  Only Team USA this time around: Liang Jishan, Sid Naresh,
Sean Zheng/Zheng Xiangjing, Ved Sheth, Sally Moyland, Tashiya Piyadasa,
Jessica Reyes-Lai and Mandy Yu.  It doesn't look to me like they have
any chance of getting out of their group, but I think they could
possibly make the match vs. Sweden close.

And, in the end, this will most likely be yet another Chinese victory
unless either Japan, Korea, Germany, Chinese Taipei and/or France can
step up and score a shock upset.  The Chinese have been playing the
Chinese Nat'l Games up until last week, so they must be a little tired.

As for the Groups, I think Groups 3 & 4 could potentially be the
closest--I wouldn't be surprised to see a two-way or three-way tie
either one or both.  Anyhow, this is my favorite event of the year, so
I'm looking forward to it.

This is the 2nd to the last big event of the year.  After this event
finishes, a lot of the players will move on down to HK for the last big
event of the season, the WTT Finals, which start on Dec 10.