The 2018 ITTF Men's World Cup was a table tennis competition held in Paris, France, 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 defeated Timo Boll 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 was invited to take part, but withdrew prior to the event. His place was taken by Lin Gaoyuan.
Means of qualification Date Venue Places Qualified players 2018 Europe Top 16 Cup 3–4 February 2018 Montreux 3 Timo Boll Dimitrij Ovtcharov Jonathan Groth 2018 ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup 1–3 March 2018 Nairobi 1 Quadri Aruna 2018 ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup 6–8 April 2018 Yokohama 3 Fan Zhendong Lin Gaoyuan Lee Sang-su 2018 ITTF-Oceania Cup 18–19 May 2018 Port Vila 1 Hu Heming 2018 ITTF Pan-America Cup 15–17 June 2018 Asunción 2 Hugo Calderano Gustavo Tsuboi Additional qualifiers n/a n/a 8 Jeong Sang-eun Tomokazu Harimoto Koki Niwa Wong Chun Ting Vladimir Samsonov Mattias Falck Kanak Jha Panagiotis Gionis Host association representative n/a n/a 1 Simon Gauzy ITTF wild card n/a n/a 1 Emmanuel LebessonTotal 20
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.
Group A Samsonov Lebesson CalderanoPoints15 V. Samsonov 4–2 4–1417 E. Lebesson2–44–339 Hugo Calderano1–43–42
Group B Gauzy Jha ArunaPoints10 Simon Gauzy 4–0 4–3418 Kanak Jha0–44–2314 Quadri Aruna3–42–42
Group C Jeong Tsuboi GionisPoints11 Jeong Sang-eun 4–0 4–1416 Gustavo Tsuboi0–44–1319 Panagiotis Gionis1–41–42
Group D Groth Falck HuPoints12 Jonathan Groth 4–3 4–0413 Mattias Falck3–44–0320 Hu Heming0–40–42
Main draw
The knockout stage took place from 20–21 October.
See also 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships 2018 ITTF World Tour 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals 2018 ITTF Women's World Cup 2018 ITTF Team World Cup
References
External links Tournament page on ITTF website