Group D: Battle in the G-Group!

Simon Gauzy, Sathian Gnanasekaran and Jonathan Groth have given alliteration fans a whole table tennis Men’s World Cup group to cheer about.

The French, Indian and Danish athletes have never faced each other in the group stages in recent times, which makes this roster an unpredictable one. Gnanasekaran comes on the back of having beaten Tomokazu Harimoto in straight sets at the Asian Cup in the summer, while the Europeans Gauzy and Groth both have latter-stages experience at this tournament to work in their favor. Question is, which ‘G’ misses out on the main draw?

Group C: Aruna, Karlsson run into Hu

In a proper World Cup group, athlete representatives from Africa, Europe and Oceania will clash as Nigerian Quadri Aruna faces Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson and Heming Hu from Australia.

The late-invitee Aruna will look to better his best quarter-final finish from five years ago in Düsseldorf, but has to first see off Karlsson and Hu – neither of whom is a pushover. It will comedown to a battle of wits between these three, no matter if Aruna has the term ‘favorite’ on his back.

Group B: Deja Vu for Jha and Sangsu

The talk of upcoming table tennis is USA’s Kanak Jha, with the Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist set to play the Men’s World Cup in a group comprising of Korea Republic’s Lee Sangsu with Egpytian Omar Assar.

Sangsu and Jha were in the same group in the 2017 edition, with the exception of Assar – and this has all the makings of a personal “round two” between those two. Funnily enough, it was Assar’s continental compatriot Quadri Aruna with Sangsu and Jha in 2017, which ended up with the Korea Republican topping the group and Jha eliminated after losing both his games in seven-game thrillers. Will the young American exact revenge this year?

Group A: Veterans galore in a European battlefest

Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Belarussian Vladimir Samsonov are about to make their 12th and 17th appearance at the Men’s World Cup –  and these two veterans will now hit it off against each other in group A. Joining them is 33-year-old Austrian Daniel Habesohn.

Amongst this group of all 30+ athletes, the number of podium finishes in total would put any other group to shame. The key battles here will be between the two former champions as Ovtcharov will want to assert his dominance against Samsonov. However, counting out Habesohn at his debut Men’s World Cup will not be a very wise move on their part.

Here we go!

The draw is live! Here’s what all of you have been waiting for:

Only 8 out of the 12 athletes will make the main draw. And there are some tasty battles already lined up in the group stages!

We will be tracking some of those for you here right now – who do you think will come out on top?

Good morning!

The first stage draw for the men’s World Cup is going to take place at 16:00 local time at the Sichuan Jinjiang Hotel in Chengdu – get your updates right here as we take a look at the best of the previous key battles in groups over the years!

First played in 1980 as an invitational event for 16 players, it was extended in 2009 to 19 players and then to 20 athletes in 2013, with the World Champion automatically qualifying.

The remaining 18 players qualify through the Continental Cups, with the provision of no more than two players per association allowed to take part. A wild card entry is then selected by the ITTF to complete the roster of 20.

Stay tuned for more details to follow!

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