An athlete’s destination is always the summit, and getting there is a journey they undertake yearly. The summit is now within reach and twenty male athletes are about to compete for the coveted spot in a week’s time from 29 November to 1 December.

But first, let’s answer some of those burning logistical questions on everyone’s minds:

When and where is the Men’s World Cup happening?

A familiar destination, Chengdu is the home for next week’s Chengdu Airlines 2019 ITTF Men’s World Cup.

“We are delighted to be welcoming Chengdu Airlines back on board for one of our most prestigious events of the year. The city of Chengdu is familiar territory for top ITTF events and therefore it is fitting that we partner with a locally headquartered, yet nationwide respected, company in Chengdu Airlines.” – Kimberly Kho, ITTF Head of Sponsorship

Played in a three day period, intense action and high quality matches from start to finish await. There will no quiet introductions in play for these athletes, and thus their adaptation to the environment must be immediate. The pressure is on the shoulders of those who compete from the very start and there is only minimal margin for error if any.

The venue for the proceedings is the Sichuan Province Gymnasium, where last month’s Women’s World Cup was held, and the total prize fund is US$ 250,000: for the winner US$ 60,000 and for the runner-up US$ 40,000.

What are the qualification and playing systems like?

According to the qualification rules established before, there shall be 20 players qualified for the World Cup, with the current World Champion automatically qualifying. 18 additional players have qualified through their Continental Cup campaigns.

In addition, the ITTF selects a Wild Card direct entry to complete the field of 20 players, with the ruling being that there cannot be more than 2 players from an association.

For the complete qualification system, click here.

As for the order of play, seedings have been done according to the latest available November World Rankings. The overall tournament consists of 2 stages – preliminary stage and the main draw.

In the first stage, the players ranked from 9 to 20 (12 players) will be divided in 4 equal groups of 3 players, with all the members of a group playing each other. The players ranked 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th will be in groups A, B, C and D respectively. Players ranked 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th will be drawn randomly into the second position of each preliminary group. The remaining players ranked 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th will be drawn randomly into the third and last position in each preliminary group.

If in case of there being 2 players from the same Association, they will be drawn into separate groups. Next, the top 2 finishers of each preliminary group shall join the top 8 seeded players in the second stage of the competition.

Here is when things get interesting as the main draw of the competition consists of a knockout draw. For the complete technical details of the draw, click here.

When do we know the group stage draw?

The first stage draw of groups will take place on Thursday, 28 November, 2019 at 16:00 local.  The location for the draw shall be Sichuan Jinjiang Hotel. This will be followed by a press conference.

The final stage draw or ‘main draw’ will be held at the Sichuan Province Gymnasium on Friday, 29 November 2019 at 18:00 local time, after the conclusion of the group stages.

Who are the star athletes on show?

After an enthralling 2019, there are some exciting names for you to look forward to see battle it out for the Men’s World Cup trophy.

The World Champion Ma Long will be looking forward to coming back into action with a big win in front of his home crowd, having previously won the title in 2012 and 2015. The Asian Cup winner Fan Zhendong qualifies as defending champion from 2018 in Paris, so his place is taken by bronze medallist Koki Niwa from Japan – since it was Ma Long who finished second at the 2019 ITTF-ATTU Asian Championships.

Joining them is the 2019 ITTF African Cup winner Omar Assar from Egypt, who missed out on last year’s edition. The continental champion from Europe will be Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov who won the tournament in 2017; and will be joined by his compatriot and double World Cup winner (2002, 2005) Timo Boll. The 3rd place finisher at the 2019 Europe Top 16 Cup, Belarusian veteran Vladimir Samsonov will want to add to his 3 World Cups (1999, 2001, 2009) as well as 3 bronze (1996, 1997, 2012) and one silver medal (2013) finishes.

The Pan American Cup winner from Brazil, Hugo Calderano will have support from USA’s debutant Kanak Jha as they would want to keep the western table tennis fans highly entertained. Finally, the Oceania Cup champion from Australia, Hum Heming comes to Chengdu with purpose and not just to add up the numbers.

For the complete players’ list click here.

How will the event proceed?

The tournament shall consist of two stages, with the first stage being a round-robin of group matches. This will be followed by the final stage, also known as the ‘main draw’, which will be a knock-out draw of 16 players.

For the complete schedule, click here.

How about the tickets?

You can find all the ticketing information right here:

International Purchase

Domestic Purchase

Can I watch it at home?

Absolutely! You can always follow all the action here on ITTF and live on itTV!