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2023 World Championships
The 2023 World Table Tennis Championships take place in Durban, South Africa from 20-28 May 2023
By Martin Hughes
Owner and Editor
The South African Table Tennis Board are the hosts and organisers for the 2023 World Championships under the auspices and authority of the International Table Tennis Federation.
This is the first World Table Tennis Championships to be held in Africa for 84 years. The last time was in Cairo, Egypt, in 1939.
The ITTF's decision to hold the event in Durban shows its commitment to the global development of table tennis. This is an important milestone for the sport and ITTF believes that this historic event will provide a platform for the sport to grow further in Africa.
The competition is being played in Durban, South Africa at the Durban International Convention Centre, 45 Bram Fischer Rd, Durban, 4001, from Saturday 20 May to Sunday 28 May 2023.
2023 World Championship venue - International Convention Centre
The South African Table Tennis Board has announced that the official mascot for the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals will be Takuma the hippopotamus, designed by a 13-year-old (Tumelo Nkoana) from Mogogelo Village north of Pretoria in South Africa.
2023 World Championship mascot - Takuma the hippopotamus
So let's take a closer look at this event...
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Did you know that the World Table Tennis Championships are now...
Separate competitions
The World Table Tennis Championships first took place in 1926 in London, England. However, since the year 2000, the Championship has been split into two separate competitions.
Team events are now held in even numbered years, whilst individual events (singles and doubles) are held in odd numbered years.
So 2023 is the year for the individual events to be contested.
TABLE TENNIS EXPERT
REVEALS HIS SECRETS
Click Here For Details
Click here for a large selection of
table tennis equipment at Megaspin *
Click here for a large selection of
table tennis equipment at Bribar *
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So what are the...
Events included in 2023
The 2023 World Table Tennis Championship events are...
- Men's Singles - for the St Bride Vase
- Women's Singles - for the Geist Prize
- Men's Doubles - for the Iran Cup
- Women's Doubles - for the W. J. Pope Trophy
- Mixed Doubles - for the Heydusek Prize
by courtesy of the ITTF
The St. Bride Vase was donated by C.Corti Woodcock in 1929, a member of the exclusive St. Bride Table Tennis Club in London, in honour of Fred Perry winning the title at the 1929 World Championships in Budapest.
The Geist Prize was donated in 1931 by Dr. Gaspar Geist, President of the Hungarian TTA.
The Iran Cup was presented at the 1947 World Championships by the Shah of Iran.
The W.J. Pope Trophy was donated in 1948 by W.J. Pope of England who was the ITTF Honorary General Secretary.
The Heydusek Cup was donated in 1948 by Zdenek Heydusek, Secretary of the Czechoslovakia Association.
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And what about the...
Equipment being used in 2023
The following equipment will be used at the 2023 World Championships...
- Tables - Double Happiness (DHS)
- Net and Posts - Double Happiness (DHS)
- Balls - Double Fish V40+ 3-star
- Flooring - Enlio
2023 World Championship Double Happiness (DHS) table
2023 World Championships ball - Double Fish V40+ 3-star
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Let's take a look at the...
Eligibility for the 2023 World Championships
Players could only be entered into the competition by their National Association.
The event was open to Member Associations satisfying the following conditions...
- Associations whose membership subscriptions have been paid up to and including those for 2022.
- Nominated players have to be eligible to represent their Member Associations according to Regulation 4.1.3 in the ITTF Handbook.
Number of Entries
Each Association could enter a maximum of 3 men and 3 women in each singles events - with the exception of those Associations with a player in the top 100 of the World Ranking (who will be allocated one extra place) and a player in the top 20 of the World Ranking (who will be allocated one further extra place). This is known as the 3+1+1 rule.
Each Association could enter a maximum of 4 players for men's doubles, 4 players for women's doubles and four players for Mixed Doubles (two men and two women) with a maximum of two combined pairs with another Association per doubles event.
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And let's now take a look at the...
Playing System for the 2023 World Championships
The first round of Men's Singles and Women's Singles will have 128 places and the first round of Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles will have 64 places.
Singles events have 32 seeded players and doubles events have 16 seeded pairs.
All singles matches are best of 7 games and doubles matches are best of 5 games.
Draws
The draws take place on Thursday 18 May 2023.
Seeded players are drawn into appropriate positions according to Regulation 3.6.2.3 in the ITTF Handbook.
All other players/pairs are then drawn at random into the remaining 96 positions for singles and 48 positions for doubles.
Players of the same Association are separated according to Regulation 3.6.3.1 in the ITTF Handbook (only in the first round of the draw but not in further rounds).
The ranking list used for seeding and for the draws was the ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking published on 16 May 2023.
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So who are the holders of each title?
2021 Winners
The previous individual World Table Tennis Championships were held in Houston, USA from 23-29 November 2021 and the winners were...
2021 Men's Singles World Champion
Fan Zhendong (China)
2021 Women's Singles World Champion
Wang Manyu (China)
2021 Men's Doubles World Champions
Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Falck (Sweden)
2021 Women's Doubles World Champions
Wang Manyu and Sun Yingsha (China)
2021 Mixed Doubles World Champions
Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha (China)
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You can get all the results for the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships here...
2023 ITTF World Championship Results
Get all the results here...
- Men's Singles Event Results here
- Women's Singles Event Results here
- Men's Doubles Event Results here
- Women's Doubles Event Results here
- Mixed Doubles Event Results here
Use the links below for results of previous World Championships.
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