KOLKATA (India): Before next summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games, a table tennis event will be held in the form of 2019 ITTF Team World Cup between November 6 and 10.
Twelve of the strongest national teams, in each of the men’s and women’s competitions, will battle for glory at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
The roadmap for the first two days of the Team World Cup was confirmed on Tuesday.
Teams were split into groups of three with the top two positions of each group proceeding to the knockout rounds.
As 1st and 2nd seeds in both men’s and women’s competitions, China and Japan are the favourites to meet in Sunday’s finals.
Strongest challengers among the men’s teams are Germany (3rd) and Korea Republic (4th) while Chinese Taipei (3rd) and Hong Kong, China (4th) are the other top seeds in the women’s team groups.
Can anyone break Team China’s dominance?
History suggests that it will be a monumental task for anyone to stop Team China from retaining their titles.
They have won seven straight gold medals in the men’s team event and eight in the women’s.
The defending champions and world No.1 sides have sent out stellar line-ups as they bid to extend their exceptional winning streaks, including reigning world champions Ma Long and Liu Shiwen, world No.1 players Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng, as well as current 2019 ITTF World Tour leaders Xu Xin and Sun Yingsha.
The Chinese are treating the event as a real test ahead of Tokyo 2020, providing added motivation in the eyes of Rio 2016 Olympic Champion, Ma Long, and Liu Shiwen.
“The Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium is the venue for Tokyo 2020. Team China is going to give its all to prepare accordingly for the Olympics. I’ve played here before and been a champion here. I hope that the venue will be a lucky place for me once more,” said Ma.
