2026 ITTF Men's/Women's Cup...
AJ Scott
The big event starts tonight (Sunday) at 9:30 pm and goes on till next Sunday: https://worldcupresults.ittf.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Player%20List&eventId=3379 [Info page]. It's being held in Macao, China as it was last year. When looking at the schedule, pls. remember China is now 12 hrs. ahead of us. There are 2 tables in play and they will be livestreamed at the ITTFWorld YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@ITTFWorld/streams. The very 1st men's match tonight at 9:30 pm (on Table 1) is Tomislav Pucar vs. Quadri Aruna and the very 1st women's match is Itoh Mima vs. Zhang Mo (at the same time on Table 2). I personally think both matches are 50-50. The matches in Stage 1 (the round robin stage) are best 3-of-5 and best 4-of-7 in Stage 2 (round-of-16 onward).
Anyhow, there are 48 men and women playing this week. They will all be divided up into 16 groups of 3 players each. The top 16 "seeds" will head each group and 2 other players will be inserted into each group and they will play a round-robin. The top finisher of each group will advance to the round-of-16. The top 10 seeds are Wang Chuqin, Truls Moregard, Hugo Calderano, Harimoto Tomokazu, Felix Lebrun, Lin Yun-ju, Matsushima Sora, Jang Woojin, Dang Qiu, and Benedikt Duda. The top 10 women's seeds are Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Chen Xingtong, Harimoto Miwa, Kuai Man, Wang Yidi, Hayata Hina, Itoh Mima, Sabine Winter, and Hashimoto Honoka.
Penholders... On the men's side, it'll be Felix Lebrun and Dang Qiu. On the women's side, it's Shan Xiaona, Yu Fu and Li Chunli (all 3 are "traditional"). Li Chunli of New Zealand is the oldest player in the Game at 64 yrs. of age, followed by Ni Xialian of Luxembourg at 62, and Zeng Zhiying of Chile at 59. And all 3 of them play with pips-out rubber on at least one side of their rackets.
Pips-out/anti-spin players... None on the men's side, but, on the women's side, there are a few: Itoh Mima (short pips/bh), Sabine Winter (anti-spin/bh), Hashimoto Honoka (chopper), Han Ying (chopper), Yuan Jianan (short pips/fh), Liu Yangzi (short pips/bh), Sreeja Akula (long pips/bh), Manika Batra (long pips/bh), Yu Fu (short pips/bh--she rarely hits with it), Zhang Mo (short pips/fh), Linda Bergstrom (chopper), Shan Xiaona (short pips on both sides--hits with fh only), and Li Chunli (short pips/fh?).
I want to also mention Stephane Ouaiche of Algeria, formerly of France (his name almost sounds like "stay-FUN waysh") who is a rare lefty chopper who does not play with pips/anti. If I'm not mistaken, this is his 1st ITTF major event as a member of the Algerian Nat'l Team.
When I look at the groups, I think the closest men's group might be 7--Felix Lebrun, Anton Kallberg, Feng Yi-hsin. I would not be surprised if that one were to end up in a 3-way tie... As for other potentially close men's groups, I would say Groups 2, 8, 10 (Alexis Lebrun, Kanak and Lam Siu Hang--I think Kanak has enough game to upset Alexis), and Groups 12-16. In my opinion, we might see upsets in most of the men's groups
As for the women's groups, I think the closest one is Group 8--Itoh Mima, Elizabeta Samara, Zhang Mo. I think Samara and Zhang both have enough game to take out Itoh. And I also wouldn't be surprised if this group ended up in a 3-way tie. Group 9 is another potentlally close group. You have Hashimoto Honoka, Liu Yangzi, and Shan Xiaona. Liu just upset Hashimoto 3-zip 2 wks. ago. Both she and Shan play with short pips, which is a problem for choppers. Funny--choppers, who usually play with pips, generally have problems playing against pips/anti players. As for upsets, I think that could happen in only a few of the women's groups
Americans... This week, it'll be Kanak Jha, Lily Zhang, and Amy Wang of Team USA and Adriana Diaz of Team PR. Diaz will most likely win her group and advance to Stage 2. I think Kanak has a small chance to win his group. I dunno about Amy & Lily
The next major will be the ITTF Centenial World Championships which start a month from now on April 28 in London, England. As for the next tournament in the WTT Tour, that will be WTT Contender Taiyuan, which starts next Monday at 9 pm. Since this one is also in China, a lot of the players playing this week will stay in China and play next week.