MEN'S TEAM TEAM EVENT - FORMAT		WOMEN'S TEAM TEAM EVENT - FORMAT
MEN'S SINGLES		WOMEN'S SINGLES
MEN'S DOUBLES		WOMEN'S DOUBLES
MIXED DOUBLES

TEAM EVENTS:
IN THE MEN'S AND WOMEN'S TEAM EVENTS,YOU'LL FIND ONLY THOSE RESULTS THAT LED THE RESPECTIVE TEAMS TO THE QUARTER FINALS AND THE MATCHES THAT DECIDED THE FINAL STANDINGS 1-24.

World Table Tennis Championships,

Manchester 24 April - 5 May

The forthcoming World Championships will introduce some changes regarding the competition system for the Team Events.

It will also be the first time ever that the Men's and the Women's event will have the same format of play. Both events will be played according to the following system, identical to the system used for the Men's Team event in the 1995 World Championships in Tianjin :

Competition System for Team Events

The ITTF has made a minor change in the competition system in order to:

- Make the group stage shorter and increase the importance of the results of day one (1) of the competition.

- Create more knock-out matches.

The change, which still gives all teams entering the Championships a chance to be World Champion, will be described below in the simplest way possible:

Category I

• Stage I

- Four (4) groups of six teams playing round-robin to determine the final positions inside the groups.

- The No. 1 team will qualify for the quarterfinals directly.

- The No. 2 team will qualify for the last sixteen (16) with chance to still become World Champion.

- The No.3 team will qualify for the last thirty two (32), also with a chance to become World Champion.

- The teams finishing No. 4 - 6 have lost their chances to become Champion and can at best finish No.9 in the Championships.

Category II

• Stage I

- Sixteen (16) groups of four teams or more playing round-robin to determine the Final positions inside the Groups.

- The No. 1 team in each group in Category II will qualify for the challenge stage.

- These sixteen (16) group winners of Category II will play a knock-out match (free draw ) to determine eight winners; the eight winners will play another knock-out match to determine four (4) challengers for the Final Stage.

- The No. 2 - 5 teams have lost their chances to become World Champion.

Advantages

• The winners of the groups in Category I have the advantage to advance straight to the quarterfinals, which means that the early matches in the groups will have great importance.
• The challengers meet the third placed teams in Category I in order to obtain the principle that "it is possible for all teams entering the Championships to compete for the Championship".
• The number of matches in "round-robin" format have been reduced and more knock-out matches have been established.