ITTF Announces Upcoming World Cup Events in France and China

The International Table Tennis Federation has announced its upcoming World Cup calendar, including France being awarded hosting duties for the ITTF Singles World Cup in successive years.

Montpellier will host its first ITTF Singles World Cup from March 29 through April 4, 2027, at the Sud de France Arena. A year later, Paris will host its fourth World Cup, marking the fifth time that the event will have come to France in its history.

Meanwhile, the ITTF has announced further additions to the World Cup calendar in China. Macao, the special administrative region of China, will host the first ITTF Doubles World Cup next year from April 19—25, 2027, and Chengdu in southwestern China’s Sichuan province will stage the ITTF Mixed Team World Cup from November 28 through December 5, 2027.

The events in Montpellier, Macao and Chengdu will all form integral parts of the countdown towards the 2028 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Montpellier and Paris

While Montpellier will be hosting its first ITTF Singles World Cup event next year, it is no stranger to table tennis, having hosted WTT Champions Montpellier in 2024 and 2025, with the 2026 event beginning next month.

The event will also open the centenary year of the French Table Tennis Federation, and the FFTT will be hoping for a Frenchman to win the World Cup singles trophy for the first time since Jean-Philippe Gatien in 1994, as a fitting celebration.

In 2028, the ITTF Singles World Cup will return to Paris after a decade away. During that time, the French capital hosted the 2024 Olympic Summer Games, in which Team France won two Olympic medals in table tennis.

Macao

Macao has hosted the ITTF Singles World Cup in 2024, 2025 and 2026, respectively. In those editions, three different men’s champions were crowned, namely Ma Long and Wang Chuqin (both from China) and Hugo Calderano (Brazil).

However, the region has now been entrusted with staging the inaugural ITTF Doubles World Cup in 2027. The timing is significant as it will take place just a year out from LA28 and will be a precursor for the men’s and women’s doubles returning to the Olympic program after a 24-year absence (since the 2004 Olympic Summer Games in Athens, Greece).

Chengdu

Chengdu will host the ITTF Mixed Team World Cup for a fifth consecutive year in 2027, following its launch in 2023. To date, China has won every edition that has been staged in the city.

What makes the 2027 edition most significant, however, is that the results in that event will count toward Olympic qualification for the first time, ahead of LA28. That year, mixed team table tennis will make its Olympic Games debut.

Celebrating A Centennial in 2026

Earlier this year, the ITTF marked its own centenary by hosting the World Team Table Tennis Championships at the Copper Box Arena and Wembley Arena in London, UK — 100 years after from the first edition, which was held in the same city at Memorial Hall and the Herga Lawn Tennis Club. It was also the first time since 1997 that the UK had hosted the event.

As a special way to honor the 100-year celebration, the ITTF set up a Centenary Exhibition adjacent to the OVO Arena at Brent Civic Centre, presented by ACN Group in partnership with the Agricultural Bank of China, one of the main sponsors of the Championships. The exhibition was set up to teach new fans and table tennis enthusiasts about the heritage and history of table tennis, and to showcase the diversity of the sport, its host cities, players and champions.

At the same time, the World Team Table Tennis Championships coincided with both the launch of an ITTF Member Associations Presidents Leadership Program and the Associations’ adoption of a new ITTF Centenary Constitution. The initiatives were a means of recognizing the ITTF’s responsibilities around growth, governance and transparency, while led by President and IOC Member Petra Sörling.

“We are on track to deliver our goals for LA28, and this calendar shows exactly how,” Sörling said about the latest host city announcements. “In Montpellier, we bring the World Cup to France once again, and to the city for the very first time, at a moment when the sport has never been more popular there.

“In Macao, China, men’s, women’s and mixed doubles will share a World Cup stage together for the first time, as the discipline returns to the Olympic program. And in Chengdu, the Mixed Team World Cup carries genuine Olympic qualification ahead of its own debut at the Games.

“Table tennis will feature six medal events at LA28, more than any other racket sport on the programme, and each of these three World Cups plays its part in getting us there. As we build on the momentum of our centenary year, I look forward to what 2027 will bring for our sport.”