England will find out which of the world’s leading nations they will face when the draw for the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals takes place on Monday.
The host nation will feature alongside the top seven seeds in Stage 1a at the OVO Arena Wembley, meaning the England men’s and women’s teams will each have THREE guaranteed major matches against some of the best countries in the world, including China, Japan and France.
The draw will take place live from London’s tallest building, The Shard, from Monday 26 January at 12pm.
Follow the draw live on the ITTF YouTube channel.
The draw will also take place at The Shard for Phase 1b, which will be played at the Copper Box Arena, with 56 men’s and 56 women’s teams – including the Welsh women – discovering their opponents.
How do the draws work?
Stage 1a – OVO Arena Wembley, May 2-3
The purpose of Phase 1a is to determine the seedings for Phase 2 (the main tournament) – all teams in Phase 1a will advance to the Round of 32.
The draw consists of England plus the top seven seeds, in the following order:
Gentlemen: 1 China, 2 France, 3 Sweden, 4 Japan, 5 Republic of Korea, 6 Germany, 7 Chinese Taipei, 8 England
Women: 1 China, 2 Japan, 3 Republic of Korea, 4 Germany, 5 France, 6 Chinese Taipei, 7 Romania, 8 England
Two groups (Groups 1 and 2) of four teams will be drawn in each of the men’s and women’s competitions.
The teams ranked 1 and 2 are placed as the best of Group 1 and Group 2 respectively. The remaining teams are drawn in pairs using the modified snake system. This means that the teams ranked 3 and 4 will be placed in Group 1 or Group 2, followed by the teams ranked 5 and 6 being placed in either group, and finally the teams ranked 7 and 8 in either group.
Stage 1b – Copper Box Arena, April 8 – May 1
Countries ranked 9-64 as follows:
Women’s teams: 9 Egypt, 10 Hong Kong China, 11 Brazil, 12 India, 13 Sweden, 14 Thailand, 15 Poland, 16 Portugal, 17 Australia, 18 USA, 19 Croatia, 20 Puerto Rico, 21 Singapore, 22 Chile, 23 Austria, 24 Italy, 25 Slovakia, 26 Hungary, 27 Spain, 28 Luxembourg, 29 Malaysia, 30 Nigeria, 31 Canada, 32 Serbia, 33 Ukraine, 34 Mexico, 35 Algeria, 36 Czech Republic, 37 South Africa, 38 Kazakhstan, 39 Netherlands, 40 Iran, 41 Uganda, 42 Tunisia, 43 Cuba, 44 French Polynesia, 45 Korea DPR, 46 Uzbekistan, 47 Madagascar, 48 Cook Islands, 49 Argentina, 50 Ghana, 51 Turkiye, 52 Angola, 53 Nauru, 54 Ethiopia, 55 Wales, 56 Guatemala, 57 Congo, 58 Dominican Republic, 59 Benin, 60 Rwanda, 61 Sri Lanka, 62 Macau China, 63 Mongolia, 64 Syria
Men’s teams: 9 Denmark, 10 Brazil, 11 Slovenia, 12 Portugal, 13 India, 14 Croatia, 15 Romania, 16 Australia, 17 Egypt, 18 Poland, 19 Iran, 20 USA, 21 Hong Kong China, 22 Canada, 23 Austria, 24 Nigeria, 25 Belgium, 26 Singapore, 27 Kazakhstan, 28 Argentina, 29 New Zealand, 30 Chile, 31 Serbia, 32 Algeria, 33 Slovakia, 34 Czech Republic, 35 Hungary, 36 Madagascar, 37 Puerto Rico, 38 Spain, 39 Mexico, 40 Tunisia, 41 Cuba, 42 New Caledonia, 43 Benin, 44 Morocco, 45 French Polynesia, 46 Thailand, 47 South Africa, 48 Malaysia, 49 Ivory Coast, 50 Cameroon, 51 Togo, 52 Fiji Islands, 53 Saudi Arabia, 54 Angola, 55 Peru, 56 Moldova 57 Korea DPR, 58 Turkiye, 59 Guatemala, 60 Greece, 61 Qatar, 62 Bahrain, 63 Uzbekistan, 64 Mongolia
14 groups (groups 3-16) of four teams will be drawn in each of the men’s and women’s competitions.
- The teams ranked 9 to 22 are placed in number order as the best of each group.
- The teams ranked 23-26 are placed in groups 13-16
- The teams ranked 27-30 are divided into groups 9-12
- The teams ranked 33-33 are divided into groups 6-8
- The teams ranked 34-36 are placed in groups 3-5
- The remaining teams are drawn three or four at a time using the modified hose system
The teams that finish first in each of the 14 groups will progress to Stage 2 (the main draw) at OVO Arena Wembley. Six second-placed teams also qualify directly for the main draw, with selection based on the best ratio of wins to losses (first in team matches, then individual matches, then matches and points, as necessary to determine the order).
The remaining eight second-place teams will play one random knockout in the preliminary round, with the four winners advancing to the main draw.
A total of 24 teams of each gender will qualify from Stage 1b to the Round of 32.
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