The 2018 ITTF Men's World Cup was a

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

competition held in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, from 19 to 21 October 2018. It was the 39th edition of the ITTF-sanctioned event, and the third time that it had been staged in Paris. In the final, China's

Fan Zhendong Fan Zhendong (, pronounced ; born 22 January 1997) is a Chinese professional table tennis player. After joining the Chinese national table tennis team in 2012 as the youngest member, he went on to become the youngest ITTF World Tour Champion a ...

defeated

Timo Boll Timo Boll (, ; born 8 March 1981) is a German former professional table tennis player. Boll is the most successful German table tennis player of all time, having won several medals at Olympic Games, world cups, and world championships. He was ra ...

of Germany, 4–1, to win his second World Cup title.

Qualification

In total, 20 players qualified for the World Cup: * 18 players from the five Continental Cups held during 2018 * A host association representative * A wild card, selected by the ITTF A maximum of two players from each association could qualify. As reigning World Champion, China's

Ma Long Ma Long ( zh, s=马龙, p=Mǎ Lóng; born 20 October 1988) is a Chinese professional table tennis player. He is a two-time Olympic champion, three-time World Champion, and three-time World Cup champion in men's singles. Widely regarded as the g ...

was invited to take part, but withdrew prior to the event. His place was taken by Lin Gaoyuan. ;Notes

Competition format

The tournament consisted of two stages: a preliminary group stage and a knockout stage. The players seeded 9 to 20 were drawn into four groups, with three players in each group. The top two players from each group joined the top eight seeded players in the second stage of the competition, which consisted of a knockout draw.

Seeding

The seeding list was based on the official ITTF world ranking for October 2018.

Preliminary stage

The preliminary group stage took place on 19 October, with the top two players in each group progressing to the main draw.

Main draw

The knockout stage took place from 20–21 October.

References

External links

Tournament page on ITTF website
{{World championships in 2018

Men A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the fa ...

World Cup (men) Table tennis competitions in France International sports competitions in Paris ITTF Men's World Cup