2026 World Team Championships...
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AJ Scott
Apr 27, 2026, 1:00:29 AMApr 27
to NYTableTennis
This big event starts this Tuesday morning at 5 am our time and goes on
for 11 days through Sunday, May 10:
https://www.ittf.com/tournament/3216/WTTTC_Finals_2026/#information
[ITTF page] and
https://www.worldtabletennis.com/teamseventInfo?selectedTab=Overview&eventId=3216
[WTT page--all the event info is here]. There will be 16 tables in
play, in 2 stadiums. When looking at the schedule, remember that London
is 5 hrs. ahead of us:
https://www.worldtabletennis.com/teamseventInfo?selectedTab=Schedule&eventId=3216
[Schedule--Tuesday thru Sunday].
They have a new playing system this time around:
https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Playing-System-ITTF-WTTTC-Finals-London-2026-V1.1.pdf.
It's a little complicated, but, if I understand it correctly, the
tournament will be divided up into 2 "stages" and Stage 1 will be
divided up into 2 parts--Stage 1a and Stage 1b. Stage 1a will be a
round-robin featuring the top 7 seeds plus the host country's team,
England, divided up into 2 groups. The purpose of Stage 1a will be to
determine the seeding for Stage 2, so all teams in Stage 1a will advance.
On the other hand, Stage 1b will be a qualification round. All the rest
of the teams will be divided up into 14 groups and they will all fight
it out to determine who advances into Stage 2. The 14 top finishers
will automatically advance. As for the 2nd place finishers, some of
them will be chosen and inserted into the Stage 2 draw. Others will
have to play an additional qualification round from which the winners
will advance. Anyhow, that's my understanding of the playing system.
Pls. accept my humblest apologies if I've gotten it wrong!
As for the top seeds, on the men's side, in Group 1, it's China, Sweden,
South Korea, and England and, in Group 2, it's France, Japan, Germany,
Chinese Taipei. In my opinion, that could be the most competitive
group. It'll be interesting to see if there are any upsets, but, on the
other hand, one wonders how seriously they will play given that, win or
lose, everyone will advance to Stage 2.
On the women's side, Group 1 is China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and
Romania and Group 2 is Japan, Germany, France and England. I'll be
surprised if there are any upsets in the women's groups. They will
start playing Stage 1a next Saturday, May 2nd.
Penholders... On the men's side, I see the usual 3--Felix Lebrun, Dang
Qiu, and Wong Chun Ting. On the women's side, it'll be Yu Fu of
Portugal, Ni Xialian of Luxembourg (returning after a long absence from
the game), Tin-Tin Ho of England and Tee Ai Xin of Malaysia.
Pips-out/anti-spin players... As for the men, it'll be Mattias Karlsson
(short pips/fh--now playing again under his original name), Wang Yang
(chopper), Panagiotis Gionis (chopper), Luka Mladenovic (anti-spin/bh),
and Ylane Batix of Cameroon (long pips/bh). As for the women, it
appears most teams have at least one pips-out player on their roster.
In Stage 1a, Group 1, it's Yoo Siwoo of South Korea (short pips/bh), and
Peng Yu-han of Chinese Taipei (short pips/fh, long pips/bh?) and, in
Group 2, it's Hashimoto Honoka of Japan (top chopper in the world),
Sabine Winter (anti-spin/bh), Han Ying (no. 2 chopper in the world), and
Yuan Wan (short pips/fh) of Germany and Tin-Tin Ho of England (short
pips/fh).
But that's not all of the women playing with pips-out rubber--there are
many more--Lilou Massart of Belgium (short pips/bh), Clio Barcenas of
Mexico (long pips/bh?), Li Jie of the Netherlands (chopper--coming out
of retirement to play this event), Giulia Takahashi of Brazil (short
pips/bh), and then from Kazakhstan, Zauresh Akasheva (short pips/bh) and
Zhanerke Koshkumbayeva (chopper); from India, it'll be Manika Batra
(long pips/bh), YD Ghorpade (long pips/bh), Sutirtha Mukherjee (short
pips/fh) and Syndrela Das (short pips/fh); then from Ukraine, it'll be
Tetyana Bilenko--their former top chopper coming out of retirement; then
from Sweden, it'll be Linda Bergstrom (chopper); from Canada, it'll be
Zhang Mo; from North Korea, it'll be Kim Kum-yong (long pips/bh). North
Korea has to go through the qualification round due to inactivity in the
Tour and, as a result, they are grossly underranked--their no. 1, Kim
Kum-yong, has beaten Sun Yingsha, the World's no. 1, and Harimoto Miwa
and Hayata Hina of Japan. For sure they're going to win Group 9 and
advance to Stage 2 and they might go deep into the draw assuming they
don't face China or Japan early on.
More women pips-out players---Yu Fu of Portugal (short pips/bh?--she
uses them sparingly), Ni Xialian of Luxembourg (medium pips on 1
side/short pips on the other?--she's a traditional penholder who
twiddles and hits with the fh only), Asel Erkebaeva of Uzbekistan
(chopper), Jessica Reyes-Lai of the US (short pips/bh), Alice
Chang/Chang Li Sian of Malaysia (chopper), Ivana Malobabic of Croatia
(chopper), Tan Zhao Yun of Singapore (chopper), Aikaterini Toliou of
Greece (chopper), Zeng Zhiying of Chile (chopper), and Tatiana Kukulkova
of Slovakia (short pips/bk). Whew! There's a whole lot of pips-out
players in the women's game! If you're a woman and you want to play at
a high level, you must understand how pips-out/anti-spin rubbers reverse
the spin on the balls.
Americans... Team USA and Team PR are both fielding men's and women's
teams. Team USA-Men will feature Kanak Jha, Nandan Naresh, Liang
Jishan, Daniel Tran and Alex Luo. As for Team USA-Women, it'll be Lily
Zhang, Sally Moyland, Jessica Reyes-Lai, Irene Yeoh and Tashiya
Piyadasa. The men are in Group 14 with Singapore, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory
Coast) and Angola. I think they can win their group, but Singapore
might be a problem.
Team USA-Women are in Group 12 with Malaysia, Namibia and the Dominican
Republic. I think they will win their group, but Malaysia might be a
problem, but they've beaten Malaysia before so maybe not? We'll see.
Team PR-Men will feature their no. 1, Angel Naranjo (pronounced "ON-hell
na-RON-ho") and their top juniors. Team PR-Women will feature Adriana
Diaz, Brianna Burgos and 2 women I'm not familiar with.
As for livestreams, this will be shown either on the ITTFWorld channel
or the WTT channel or both. They've already put out some "hype" videos
on both channels. Here's 2 good ones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVwELtedEqo&list=PLjmb8SJ3jXkS0wWuZKNUKqi19lGS7SVQQ&index=4
[A short history of TT in London in the past 100 yrs.] and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS3HmH-xi9s&list=PLIl_mJ3zK7B_MAdxPf8BJskFYlBQ5UjgG&index=3
[the top 10 points from the 2024 Worlds].
for 11 days through Sunday, May 10:
https://www.ittf.com/tournament/3216/WTTTC_Finals_2026/#information
[ITTF page] and
https://www.worldtabletennis.com/teamseventInfo?selectedTab=Overview&eventId=3216
[WTT page--all the event info is here]. There will be 16 tables in
play, in 2 stadiums. When looking at the schedule, remember that London
is 5 hrs. ahead of us:
https://www.worldtabletennis.com/teamseventInfo?selectedTab=Schedule&eventId=3216
[Schedule--Tuesday thru Sunday].
They have a new playing system this time around:
https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Playing-System-ITTF-WTTTC-Finals-London-2026-V1.1.pdf.
It's a little complicated, but, if I understand it correctly, the
tournament will be divided up into 2 "stages" and Stage 1 will be
divided up into 2 parts--Stage 1a and Stage 1b. Stage 1a will be a
round-robin featuring the top 7 seeds plus the host country's team,
England, divided up into 2 groups. The purpose of Stage 1a will be to
determine the seeding for Stage 2, so all teams in Stage 1a will advance.
On the other hand, Stage 1b will be a qualification round. All the rest
of the teams will be divided up into 14 groups and they will all fight
it out to determine who advances into Stage 2. The 14 top finishers
will automatically advance. As for the 2nd place finishers, some of
them will be chosen and inserted into the Stage 2 draw. Others will
have to play an additional qualification round from which the winners
will advance. Anyhow, that's my understanding of the playing system.
Pls. accept my humblest apologies if I've gotten it wrong!
As for the top seeds, on the men's side, in Group 1, it's China, Sweden,
South Korea, and England and, in Group 2, it's France, Japan, Germany,
Chinese Taipei. In my opinion, that could be the most competitive
group. It'll be interesting to see if there are any upsets, but, on the
other hand, one wonders how seriously they will play given that, win or
lose, everyone will advance to Stage 2.
On the women's side, Group 1 is China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and
Romania and Group 2 is Japan, Germany, France and England. I'll be
surprised if there are any upsets in the women's groups. They will
start playing Stage 1a next Saturday, May 2nd.
Penholders... On the men's side, I see the usual 3--Felix Lebrun, Dang
Qiu, and Wong Chun Ting. On the women's side, it'll be Yu Fu of
Portugal, Ni Xialian of Luxembourg (returning after a long absence from
the game), Tin-Tin Ho of England and Tee Ai Xin of Malaysia.
Pips-out/anti-spin players... As for the men, it'll be Mattias Karlsson
(short pips/fh--now playing again under his original name), Wang Yang
(chopper), Panagiotis Gionis (chopper), Luka Mladenovic (anti-spin/bh),
and Ylane Batix of Cameroon (long pips/bh). As for the women, it
appears most teams have at least one pips-out player on their roster.
In Stage 1a, Group 1, it's Yoo Siwoo of South Korea (short pips/bh), and
Peng Yu-han of Chinese Taipei (short pips/fh, long pips/bh?) and, in
Group 2, it's Hashimoto Honoka of Japan (top chopper in the world),
Sabine Winter (anti-spin/bh), Han Ying (no. 2 chopper in the world), and
Yuan Wan (short pips/fh) of Germany and Tin-Tin Ho of England (short
pips/fh).
But that's not all of the women playing with pips-out rubber--there are
many more--Lilou Massart of Belgium (short pips/bh), Clio Barcenas of
Mexico (long pips/bh?), Li Jie of the Netherlands (chopper--coming out
of retirement to play this event), Giulia Takahashi of Brazil (short
pips/bh), and then from Kazakhstan, Zauresh Akasheva (short pips/bh) and
Zhanerke Koshkumbayeva (chopper); from India, it'll be Manika Batra
(long pips/bh), YD Ghorpade (long pips/bh), Sutirtha Mukherjee (short
pips/fh) and Syndrela Das (short pips/fh); then from Ukraine, it'll be
Tetyana Bilenko--their former top chopper coming out of retirement; then
from Sweden, it'll be Linda Bergstrom (chopper); from Canada, it'll be
Zhang Mo; from North Korea, it'll be Kim Kum-yong (long pips/bh). North
Korea has to go through the qualification round due to inactivity in the
Tour and, as a result, they are grossly underranked--their no. 1, Kim
Kum-yong, has beaten Sun Yingsha, the World's no. 1, and Harimoto Miwa
and Hayata Hina of Japan. For sure they're going to win Group 9 and
advance to Stage 2 and they might go deep into the draw assuming they
don't face China or Japan early on.
More women pips-out players---Yu Fu of Portugal (short pips/bh?--she
uses them sparingly), Ni Xialian of Luxembourg (medium pips on 1
side/short pips on the other?--she's a traditional penholder who
twiddles and hits with the fh only), Asel Erkebaeva of Uzbekistan
(chopper), Jessica Reyes-Lai of the US (short pips/bh), Alice
Chang/Chang Li Sian of Malaysia (chopper), Ivana Malobabic of Croatia
(chopper), Tan Zhao Yun of Singapore (chopper), Aikaterini Toliou of
Greece (chopper), Zeng Zhiying of Chile (chopper), and Tatiana Kukulkova
of Slovakia (short pips/bk). Whew! There's a whole lot of pips-out
players in the women's game! If you're a woman and you want to play at
a high level, you must understand how pips-out/anti-spin rubbers reverse
the spin on the balls.
Americans... Team USA and Team PR are both fielding men's and women's
teams. Team USA-Men will feature Kanak Jha, Nandan Naresh, Liang
Jishan, Daniel Tran and Alex Luo. As for Team USA-Women, it'll be Lily
Zhang, Sally Moyland, Jessica Reyes-Lai, Irene Yeoh and Tashiya
Piyadasa. The men are in Group 14 with Singapore, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory
Coast) and Angola. I think they can win their group, but Singapore
might be a problem.
Team USA-Women are in Group 12 with Malaysia, Namibia and the Dominican
Republic. I think they will win their group, but Malaysia might be a
problem, but they've beaten Malaysia before so maybe not? We'll see.
Team PR-Men will feature their no. 1, Angel Naranjo (pronounced "ON-hell
na-RON-ho") and their top juniors. Team PR-Women will feature Adriana
Diaz, Brianna Burgos and 2 women I'm not familiar with.
As for livestreams, this will be shown either on the ITTFWorld channel
or the WTT channel or both. They've already put out some "hype" videos
on both channels. Here's 2 good ones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVwELtedEqo&list=PLjmb8SJ3jXkS0wWuZKNUKqi19lGS7SVQQ&index=4
[A short history of TT in London in the past 100 yrs.] and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS3HmH-xi9s&list=PLIl_mJ3zK7B_MAdxPf8BJskFYlBQ5UjgG&index=3
[the top 10 points from the 2024 Worlds].
AJ Scott
Apr 27, 2026, 5:30:13 PMApr 27
to NYTableTennis
Just checked the WTT channel and, apparently, all 16 tables will be
livestreamed: https://www.youtube.com/@WTTGlobal/streams
Here's the schedule
again: https://www.worldtabletennis.com/teamseventInfo?selectedTab=Schedule&eventId=3216.
Again, the livestreams start just before 5 am tomorrow (Tuesday) morning
our time.
This is unprecedented coverage! Many thanks to the ITTF/WTT!!
livestreamed: https://www.youtube.com/@WTTGlobal/streams
Here's the schedule
again: https://www.worldtabletennis.com/teamseventInfo?selectedTab=Schedule&eventId=3216.
Again, the livestreams start just before 5 am tomorrow (Tuesday) morning
our time.
This is unprecedented coverage! Many thanks to the ITTF/WTT!!
Albert
May 3, 2026, 7:33:44 PMMay 3
to NYTableTennis
France vs. Japan [men]: https://youtu.be/YdJF2W3LTOY?t=780 [full match].
The schedule for Monday and Tuesday has been released: https://www.worldtabletennis.com/teamseventInfo?selectedTab=Schedule&eventId=3216
Team USA-Men play 2nd seed France at noon (our time) tomorrow (Monday) and Team USA-Women play India on Tuesday at 2:30 pm (our time). I hate to say it, but I don't think our men have a chance, but the women do have a good chance to win. India has 2 players with long pips on the bh and 2 players with short pips on the fh and all of them are beatable.
If the women get past India then they will probably get Ukraine in the 2nd round and that's another winnable match. So, I think the women can get to the quarterfinals where they would most likely meet the 2nd seed, Japan.
The "dark horse" in the women's draw is North Korea. They're in Germany's quarter and Japan's half of the draw. I would not be surprised to see a North Korea - Japan semifinal. Lots of pips/anti players in Japan's half of the draw. I can't wait to see how it plays out--literally and figuratively.
AJ Scott
May 9, 2026, 5:50:00 PMMay 9
to nytabl...@googlegroups.com
France vs. China, men's semifinal: https://youtu.be/5ZHdASPaGkA?t=9687 [full].
The women's final starts tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 6 am our time and the men's final at 11 am.
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