The ITTF Mixed Team World Cup Chengdu 2025 has put a new spin on the sport. It is a race to eight matches in which the best men and women from your country play three doubles and two singles matches. The match is a mixed doubles match where three games are played, the second three games are women’s singles, the third set of three games are men’s singles, the fourth set is men’s doubles and the final set is women’s doubles. The team that wins 8 games first is the winner, regardless of whether that mark is achieved in the final game of the fifth match (8-7) or in the third set of matches after an 8-0 sweep.
The first two phases were group play. In the first stage there were four groups of four teams. Team USA was the bottom seed in Group 3 and our team lost all three games (to Korea, Sweden and Taipei) for a final total of 3 games won and 24 games lost.
In that first phase, the top two teams in each group qualified to advance, and those eight teams finished precisely based on seeding. China and Hong Kong advanced in Group 1, Japan and Croatia advanced in Group 2, the Republic of Korea and Sweden advanced in Group 3, and Germany and France advanced in Group 4.
Stage 2 also went exactly according to seed. China, Japan, Germany and Korea finished 1-4 and advanced to the third stage. China was 56-16, Japan was 52-25, Germany was 47-38 and the Republic of Korea was 41-44. The unlucky team that finished just outside the top four was France. The French team actually finished with a better winning percentage (they were 44-45), but they only managed 10 points – losing only one set more than the team from the Republic of Korea who scored 11 points.
The final stage is the semi-finals in which China will face the Republic of Korea and Germany will face Japan. These matches will be played tomorrow morning and after a short break we will see the bronze medal match (for third place), followed by the final.
As a preview, China will be favored over South Korea in each match with a pair of World No. 1 players (Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha) in the opening mixed doubles match, Kuai Man in women’s singles, Lin Shidong in men’s singles, followed by doubles pairs that could match World 1 and 2 in both men’s and women’s. When Korea faced them in the group stage, China won 8–0.
The match between Japan and Germany is intriguing. Japan has Tomokazu Harimoto and Sora Matsushima, who are higher level than any German men, but Dang Qiu, Franziska and Duda have all spent time in the world’s Top 10 in the recent past. On the women’s side, Japan has a decisive lead, but Germany has strong players who can counter both Kaufmann and Mittleham. When they met in the groups, Japan won 8-3, so Germany will need big performances from their core players.
The action continues tomorrow.
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