Browsing: Olympic

Seeding / Player / NOC
Result
Seeding / Player / NOC

(1) WANG, Chuqin (China)
7-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-9, 11-4
4-1
(39) WANG, Yang (Slovak Republic)

(19) MOREGARD, Truls (Sweden)
11-4, 11-9, 11-9, 11-4
4-0
(53) NUYTINCK, Cedric (Belgium)

Truls MOREGARD (Sweden) beat Cedric NUYTINCK (Belgium)

(20) KAO, Cheng-Jui (Chinese Taipei)
11-7, 11-2, 9-11, 11-5, 11-4
4-1
(63) ALAMIAN, Nima (Iran)

(40) IONESCU, Eduard (Romania)
8-11, 9-11, 6-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 13-11
4-3
(14) ARUNA, Quadri (Nigeria)

(16) ASSAR, Omar (Egypt)
11-6, 11-6, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8
4-1
(61) RAKOTOARIMANANA, Fabio (Madagascar)

(43) MINO, Alberto (Ecuador)
9-11, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-4, 11-8
4-3
(26) LUU, Finn (Australia)

(28) GERASSIMENKO, Kirill (Kazakstan)
11-4, 11-5, 12-10, 11-6
4-0
(34) BURGOS, Nicolas (Chile)

(7) QIU, Dang (Germany)
2-11, 11-3, 11-2, 11-6, 12-10
4-1
(37) APOLONIA, Tiago (Portugal)

Dang QIU (Germany) beat Tiago APOLONIA (Portugal)

(8) JANG, Woojin (South Korea)
11-7, 11-5, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7
4-1
(50) GONZALEZ, Daniel (Puerto Rica)

(17) GROTH, Jonathan (Denmark)
13-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-5
4-0
(52) MLADENOVIC, Luka (Luxembourg)

Jonathan GROTH (Denmark) beat Luka MLADENOVIC (Luxembourg)

(60) KOZUL, Deni (Slovenia)
10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 12-10
4-2
(24) ACHANTA, Sharath Kamal (India)

(10) TOGAMI, Shunsuke (Japan)
11-3, 11-6, 11-7, 13-11
4-0
(55) WANG, Eugene (Canada)

(11) LEBRUN, Alexis (France)
11-6, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6
4-0
(45) LORENZO, Santiago (Argentina)

(32) PUCAR, Tomislav (Croatia)
11-3, 11-7, 11-5, 12-10
4-0
(57) BOULOUSSA, Mehdi (Algeria)

(21) ROBLES, Alvaro (Spain)
11-6, 14-16, 11-9, 9-11, 11-7, 11-9
4-2
(36) HABESOHN, Daniel (Austria)

(4) CALDERANO, Hugo (Brazil)
11-8, 11-7, 11-9, 11-4
4-0
(33) PEREIRA, Andy (Cuba)

(3) LEBRUN, Felix (France)
11-8, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8
4-0
(49) DESAI, Harmeet (India)

Felix LEBRUN (France) beat Harmeet DESAI (India)

(18) KALLBERG, Anton (Sweden)
11-7, 11-13, 11-4, 11-6, 12-14, 6-11, 11-9
4-3
(58) IDOWU, Saheed (Congo Brazzaville)

(48) ISHIY, Vitor (Brazil)
11-7, 11-5, 11-7, 11-6
4-0
(23) LUM, Nicholas (Australia)

(9) OVTCHAROV, Dimitrij (Germany)
11-3, 11-7, 11-3, 11-5
4-0
(46) MADRID, Marcos (Mexico)

(13) JORGIC, Darko (Slovenia)
8-11, 11-4, 11-8, 13-11, 3-11, 11-7
4-2
(47) QUEK, Izaac (Singapore)

(25) PITCHFORD, Liam (Great Britain)
11-6, 11-3, 11-3, 11-2
4-0
(64) WU, Vicky (Fiji)

(38) GACINA, Andrej (Croatia)
11-8, 10-12, 11-8, 12-10, 11-5
4-1
(27) IONESCU, Ovidiu (Romania)

(5) LIN, Yun-Ju (Chinese Taipei)
11-6, 12-14, 11-6, 11-6, 11-2
4-1
(42) AFANADOR, Brian (Puerto Rica)

(6) HARIMOTO, Tomokazu (Japan)
11-3, 11-2, 11-3, 11-5
4-0
(44) ALLEGRO, Martin (Belgium)

(31) ALAMIYAN, Noshad (Iran)
6-11, 11-5, 11-4, 12-10, 11-8
4-1
(54) OMOTAYO, Olajide (Nigeria)

(41) REDZIMSKI, Milosz (Poland)
11-8, 11-7, 16-14, 11-8
4-0
(29) EL-BEIALI, Mohamed (Egypt)

(35) LIND, Anders (Denmark)
11-9, 11-6, 11-8, 11-4
4-0
(12) FREITAS, Marcos (Portugal)

(59) JHA, Kanak (USA)
8-11, 11-8, 11-2, 11-2, 8-11, 12-10
4-2
(15) CHO, Daeseong (South Korea)

(56) GIONIS, Panagiotis (Greece)
11-6, 11-8, 11-8, 11-4
4-0
(22) LY, Edward (Canada)

Panagiotis GIONIS (Greece) beat Edward LY (Canada)

(30) WONG, Chun Ting (Hong Kong China)
7-11, 18-16, 11-8, 6-11, 11-0, 8-11, 11-4
4-3
(51) DIAW, Ibrahima (Senegal)

(2) FAN, Zhendong (China)
11-6, 11-4, 11-7, 11-2
4-0
(62) ZHMUDENKO, Yaroslav (Ukraine)

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Seeding / Player / NOC
Result
Seeding / Player / NOC

(1) SUN, Yingsha (China)
11-3, 11-6, 11-6, 11-5
4-0
(47) TAKAHASHI, Giulia (Brazil)

(32) NI, Xia Lian (Luxembourg)
12-10, 11-3, 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 11-6
4-2
(49) ALTINKAYA, Sibel (Turkey)

(31) ZENG, Jian (Singapore)
11-5, 11-3, 11-13, 11-6, 9-11, 13-15, 11-5
4-3
(40) MALOBABIC, Ivana (Croatia)

(16) AKULA, Sreeja (India)
11-4, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8
4-0
(34) KALLBERG, Christina (Sweden)

(43) YU, Fu (Portugal)
11-7, 11-6, 13-11, 11-9
4-0
(9) JEON, Jihee (South Korea)

(28) BAJOR, Natalia (Poland)
11-8, 3-11, 8-11, 11-7, 12-10, 5-11, 11-6
4-3
(33) SAWETTABUT, Suthasini (Thailand)

(25) SAMARA, Elizabeta (Romania)
6-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-9, 13-11, 9-11, 11-4
4-3
(50) BRATEYKO, Solomiya (Ukraine)

(7) CHENG, I-Ching (Chinese Taipei)
12-10, 11-5, 11-1, 14-12
4-0
(56) HANFFOU, Sarah (Cameroon)

(6) DIAZ, Adriana (Puerto Rica)
11-9, 11-5, 11-8, 11-7
4-0
(44) LUPULESKU, Izabela (Serbia)

(23) WANG, Amy (USA)
11-7, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5
4-0
(55) TOMMY, Priscilla (Vanuatu)

(62) PYON, Song Gyong (North Korea)
11-8, 11-7, 10-12, 11-7, 11-4
4-1
(27) DOO, Hoi Kem (Hong Kong China)

(11) MITTELHAM, Nina (Germany)
11-7, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8
4-0
(35) JEE, Minhyung (Australia)

(13) YUAN, Jia Nan (France)
11-1, 11-3, 11-3, 11-5
4-0
(59) BELLO, Fatimo (Nigeria)

(29) ZHANG, Mo (Canada)
11-7, 11-5, 11-7, 11-8
4-0
(58) VEGA, Paulina (Chile)

(17) MESHREF, Dina (Egypt)
11-5, 11-4, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8
4-1
(38) XIAO, Maria (Spain)

(3) HAYATA, Hina (Japan)
11-1, 11-3, 11-4, 11-5
4-0
(45) VIVARELLI, Debora (Italy)

(4) SHIN, Yubin (South Korea)
14-12, 11-4, 11-3, 11-6
4-0
(63) TAPPER, Melissa (Australia)

(39) POTA, Georgina (Hungary)
11-7, 7-11, 10-12, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-8
4-3
(24) SHAN, Xiaona (Germany)

(19) ZHANG, Lily (USA)
11-7, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6
4-0
(67) SAHAKIAN, Mariana (Lebanon)

(14) TAKAHASHI, Bruna (Brazil)
11-8, 11-4, 13-11, 12-10
4-0
(53) EDEM, Offiong (Nigeria)

(12) PAVADE, Prithika (France)
11-4, 9-11, 11-7, 11-4, 14-12
4-1
(64) SHAHSAVARI, Neda (Iran)

(18) BATRA, Manika (India)
11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5
4-1
(51) HURSEY, Anna (Great Britain)

Manika BATRA (India) beat Anna HURSEY (Great Britain)

(36) ZHU, Chengzhu (Hong Kong China)
11-7, 11-7, 11-7, 12-10
4-0
(26) CHIEN, Tung-Chuan (Chinese Taipei)

(8) HIRANO, Miu (Japan)
11-9, 11-5, 11-5, 11-7
4-0
(37) PICCOLIN, Giorgia (Italy)

(5) SZOCS, Bernadette (Romania)
9-11, 11-4, 11-3, 11-7, 11-9
4-1
(54) ZHOU, Jingyi (Singapore)

(46) PESOTSKA, Margaryta (Ukraine)
11-2, 9-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 7-11, 11-5
4-3
(22) PARANANG, Orawan (Thailand)

(30) SHAO, Jieni (Portugal)
11-7, 11-9, 5-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-5
4-2
(48) DE NUTTE, Sarah (Luxembourg)

(15) POLCANOVA, Sofia (Austria)
11-4, 11-3, 11-4, 11-8
4-0
(52) COSSIO ACEVES, Arantxa (Mexico)

(42) MATELOVA, Hana (Czech Republic)
15-13, 11-2, 8-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-7
4-2
(10) YANG, Xiaoxin (Monaco)

(41) EERLAND, Britt (Netherlands)
11-9, 13-11, 11-6, 11-6
4-0
(20) GODA, Hana (Egypt)

(21) BERGSTROM, Linda (Sweden)
11-7, 9-11, 14-12, 11-9, 11-6
4-1
(57) WEGRZYN, Katarzyna (Poland)

(2) CHEN, Meng (China)
11-2, 11-4, 11-5, 11-2
4-0
(61) LOGHRAIBI, Lynda (Algeria)

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We’ve designed a comprehensive infographic that highlights key events, schedules, players to watch, and interesting facts about the Olympic table tennis event at Paris 2024. Feel free to reshare the infographic on any platform of your choosing, linking back to racketinsight.com.

Interesting in reading more about the Olympics? We have a full Olympics hub with tons of helpful content.

To get a high-quality download of the graphic, simply click on the image to open a new page. Right-click and select ‘Save as…’ to download the high-res version.

Further Reading

Love the infographic, or have any questions? Please leave a comment below with any feedback, we love to hear it!

David’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 12, earning his first coaching license in 2012. He’s played in national team & individual competitions, although he prefers the more relaxed nature of a local league match! After earning his umpiring qualification in England, David moved to Australia and started Racket Insight to share information about the sport he loves.

Blade: Stiga WRB Offensive Classic | Forehand: Calibra LT | Backhand: Xiom Musa
Playstyle: The All-Rounder

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However, it’s run by one person only (Martin Hughes) and has high running costs that need to be paid for.

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My intention has always been to give you the best possible information, advice and recommendations, based on my 50+ years involvement in the sport.

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Since 1923, the South Paris Arena has been hosting trade fairs and expos for the worldâ€s biggest industries. In 2024, it plays host to the worldâ€s best table tennis players for 2 weeks of world class entertainment.

Hereâ€s everything you need to know about the location for table tennisâ€s most prestigious event.

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Location

South Paris Arena is located in Paris†15th arrondissement, around 14km south of the main Olympic Village. For anyone familiar with the geography of Paris, thatâ€ll be around 4km south of the Eiffel Tower.

Itâ€s the most southern of the central Parisian venues. If youâ€re lucky enough to be in Paris, here are the nearest public transport options:

• Metro 13 – “Porte de Vanves” station,  then 1.4 km to the venue
• Metro 8 – “Balard” station, then 750 m walk to the venue
• Tram T3a – “Georges Brassens” station, then 700 m walk to the venue
• Metro 12 – “Porte de Versailles” station, then 150 m walk to the venue

Sports Being Hosted At South Paris Arena

As youâ€ve likely spotted from the above location map, there are actually 4 sports being played at the South Paris Arena across 3 different arenas.

Table Tennis itself is being hosted in “South Paris Arena #4â€.

About South Paris Arena

South Paris Arena forms part of the Paris Expo complex, a 35 hectare park with 228,000 square meters of hall space. During normal years itâ€s used to host large exhibitions including boat and car shows.

2024 is very different, with the entire complex used for the Olympics.

Source: Olympics.com

The expo site consists of 7 halls (or pavilion spaces)

Hall 1 is the largest event space at 45,000 m^2, and will be hosting the volleyball competition throughout the entire games.

Hall 6 will host the preliminary rounds of the handball (with the final rounds held at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille) before transforming into the weightlifting venue for the final 5 days of the games.

We care mostly about Hall 4, which is where the table tennis competition will be taking place. Itâ€s a large 20,000m^2 space with a 10.5m ceiling, perfect for hosting the worldâ€s biggest table tennis event.

There’ll be space for around 6,500 spectators at each session in Hall 4, with tickets expected to be sold out for the entire 2 weeks.

Hall 5 will also be used partly as a training hall for table tennis competitors, alongside hospitality and broadcast rooms.

The rest of the space will be used for various accreditation, VIP, and partner events.

Source: Paris.fr

Expected Arena Setup

Over the course of the competition, expect the arena setup to shift based on the amount of matches that need to be played. Weâ€re expecting the initial number of competition tables to be between four (4) shifting down to just one (1) table for the medal matches.

It remains to be seen whether they will be able to move seating / playing space around, or if theyâ€ll simply illuminate just the tables that are being played on.

Speaking of tables, the ITTF has announced they are using DHS Rainbow 2 tables for the competition hall, each equipped with remote-controlled LED lights to be used between points/games.

You can learn more about the table tennis equipment being used at the Paris 2024 Olympics with our article on that topic.

Whilst we wonâ€t know the exact layout until the 27th July, we do have this artistâ€s rendering that gives a sense of the arena.

Source: Paris 2024/Viparis

David’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 12, earning his first coaching license in 2012. He’s played in national team & individual competitions, although he prefers the more relaxed nature of a local league match! After earning his umpiring qualification in England, David moved to Australia and started Racket Insight to share information about the sport he loves.

Blade: Stiga WRB Offensive Classic | Forehand: Calibra LT | Backhand: Xiom Musa
Playstyle: The All-Rounder

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The Olympics are, by far, the most important competition in table tennis. They are hosted every 4 years, so most athletes will have few chances (if any!) to shine on the biggest stage in the world.

For many athletes, playing in the Olympics is the highlight of their careers, regardless of the result. After all, only 70 male and female athletes are able to participate every 4 years.

Even fewer are those who are skilled enough to win Olympic medals. These players are the ones who leave their mark forever in the history of the sport.

Tokyo 2020 was a particularly special tournament, so letâ€s explore the reasons why.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympic Events

Table tennis was introduced at the Olympics in 1988. The initial events were the menâ€s singles, menâ€s doubles, womenâ€s singles, and womenâ€s doubles events.

In 2008, the menâ€s and womenâ€s doubles events were replaced by the menâ€s team and womenâ€s team events.

Finally, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics introduced a new event: The mixed doubles event.

I believe that this final iteration of the Olympic events structure is by far the best weâ€ve ever had.

The teamâ€s events provide a rare spectacle where weâ€re able to see each country compete as a team, instead of having one athlete represent each nation.

Adding the mixed doubles event in Tokyo was seen in a very positive light, and I also think itâ€s a very exciting and promising event.

Up until the Tokyo Olympics, both men and women only competed against athletes of the same gender. At Tokyo, however, we were able to see male and female athletes team up and play with and against each other.

In my opinion, this represented a huge positive step forward for Olympic table tennis.

Menâ€s Singles Event

The menâ€s singles event was a very exciting one, and it was probably the most important menâ€s singles event in the history of the sport.

In the semi-finals, Fan Zhendong (CHN) beat Lin Yun-Ju (TPE) 4-3, and Ma Long (CHN) beat Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER), also 4-3. Both matches were absolute thrillers and Iâ€d recommend you watch them if you have the chance.

Fan and Ma then clashed against each other in arguably the most important match of their careers up to that point.

If Fan Zhendong won, he would join the list of Olympic winners at the age of 24.

Considering that he was an up-and-coming star and Ma Long was already 31 years old at the time, it looked like Fan was about to start his own era of dominance.

If he won the Olympic menâ€s singles event, he would probably have two more chances to win it at the ages of 27 and 31 in 2024 and 2028, respectively.

If Ma Long won, then he would establish himself as the undisputed greatest player of all time, and he did.

Ma Long is generally considered to be the best player of all time because (alongside his plethora of records and achievements) heâ€s the only player to have won 2 Olympic menâ€s singles events.

In the end, Ma Long bested Fan Zhendong by 4 games to 2, in a game full of loops and counterloops.

Ma Long 🇨🇳 vs Fan Zhendong 🇨🇳 | Men’s Singles Table Tennis 📠Gold Medal Match | Tokyo Replays

As for the third and fourth place match, Dima Ovtcharov earned a well-deserved Olympic bronze medal, as he beat Lin Yun-Ju 4-3.

Womenâ€s Singles Event

The womenâ€s singles event was just as important, although for slightly different reasons.

In contrast to the menâ€s singles, the semi-finals were not even close as the two Chinese representatives won their matches 4-0. Chen Meng beat Singaporeâ€s Yu Mengyu and Sun Yingsha beat Japanâ€s Mima Ito.

In addition, both Chinese players only won the minimum 44 points needed to win each match, as none of the matches had a game in which their opponent even reached 10 points.

In the final match, an established 27-year-old world #1 in the form of Chen Meng was to face an up-and-coming generational talent, the 20-year-old attacker, Sun Yingsha.

If Chen Meng won, she would be able to write her name in the history books, and, if Sun Yingsha won, she would start her Olympic career in spectacular fashion, giving her many, many chances to become the GOAT in the sport.

In the end, Chen beat Sun in a closely contested match by 4 games to 2.

As for Mima Ito, she placed third and won a much-deserved Olympic bronze medal after beating Yu Mengyu 4-1.

Menâ€s Team EventÂ

In both team events, China is always by far the favorite to win. In fact, they had never lost any team event leading up to the Tokyo Olympics. Their only goal is to maintain that perfect record.

And that, they did. Speaking of perfect record, they didnâ€t lose a single match in the whole menâ€s team event. They won every round 3-0.

In the semi-finals, team China was to play team South Korea, and team Japan had to play against team Germany.

As we said before, China won 3-0. As for Japan and Germany, it was an absolute thriller, as they went to the fifth and deciding match.

Patrick Franziska and Timo Boll won the doubles match 3-2, Harimoto beat Ovtcharov 3-1, Boll beat Mizutani 3-1 and Harimoto beat Franziska 3-2. All of these were very close and exciting matches.

In the final match, Dima Ovtcharov beat Koki Niwa 3-0, earning the Germans a spot in the final.

The final saw Team China playing against Team Germany, and China won very comfortably.

Xu Xin and Ma Long won the doubles match 3-0, Fan Zhendong beat Dima Ovtcharov 3-2, and Ma Long beat Timo Boll 3-1. At moments it felt like Germany could have threatened the Chinese team, but the Chinese athletes showed up when it mattered the most and took every match.

As for the third-place match, Japan beat Korea 3-1 in what was also a fairly one-sided match.

Womenâ€s Team Event

The womenâ€s team event was even more one-sided than the menâ€s team event. China won every single match, and none of them went to the deciding game. They won every single individual match 3-0 or 3-1.

The semi-final match-ups were China vs Germany and Japan vs Hong Kong where both China and Japan won 3-0.

In the final, China beat Japan relatively comfortably. Chen Meng and Wang Manyu beat Kasumi Ishikawa and Miu Hirano 3-1 in the doubles match, and then Sun Yingsha beat Mima Ito 3-1 in the first singles match.

In the third and last singles match, China showed why they are by far the strongest nation in the world.

Wang Manyu beat Miu Hirano 11–5, 11–9, 11–3, giving China yet another gold medal.

As for the third-place match, Hong Kong beat Germany 3-1.

Mixed Doubles Event

As we said before, the mixed doubles event was introduced at this edition of the Olympics, and it looks like itâ€s here to stay.

One advantage of the mixed doubles event is that 16 doubles pairings compete from 16 nations. This means that China can only send 1 doubles pairing to this event, which, in turn, means that the other nations have a much higher chance of winning.

Now, we donâ€t have anything against China, but, before these Olympics, the last time any other nation won a gold medal at the Olympics had been in 2004. Before that, the only time a non-Chinese nation won a gold medal was in 1992.

In fact, out of the 32 gold medals awarded before the Tokyo Olympics, only 4 were won by athletes not from China. That makes it very exciting when other countries have a chance at winning an event.

The teams that reached the semi-finals were China, France, Japan, and Chinese Taipei.

To reach the semi-final, though, France and Japan had to win two insane matches in the quarter-finals.

France (Emmanuel Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan) beat Hong Kong (Wong Chun-ting and Doo Hoi Kem) 13-11 in the 7th game.

An even more impressive match was Japan (Mima Ito and Jun Mizutani) vs Germany (Petrissa Solja and Patrick Franziska).

The Japanese pairing came back from being 3-2 down to win 16-14 in the seventh.

As for the semi-final matches, they werenâ€t too closely contested. China (Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen) beat France 4-0, and Japan beat Chinese Taipei (Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-ching) 4-1.

The final match between China and Japan was nothing short of incredible.

China took the first two games and Japan answered back, winning the three following games. China then won the sixth game. In a historic upset, Japan were able to seize the seventh game and win Japanâ€s first-ever Olympic gold medal in table tennis.

Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito were the only non-Chinese athletes to win a gold medal in this edition of the Olympic games, and they were the first ones to win since 2004.

In the third-place match, team Chinese Taipei won the bronze medal after beating France 4-0.

Best Players at The Tokyo Olympics

Having gone over all of the results, we were able to highlight the 5 athletes who performed best in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Ma Long

Ma Long had the tournament of his life, as he won two Olympic medals (menâ€s singles and menâ€s team), which solidified his position as the best male table tennis player of all time.

Chen Meng

Chen Meng also won two Olympic gold medals (womenâ€s singles and womenâ€s team) and she was able to write her name in the history books of the sport.

Mima Ito

Mima Ito had a spectacular tournament, winning the gold medal in the mixed doubles event, a silver medal in the womenâ€s team event, and a bronze medal in the womenâ€s singles event.

Mima was undoubtedly the best non-Chinese athlete in these Olympics.

Dimitrij Ovtcharov

Dima Ovtcharov also had a great run at these Olympics as he won a silver medal in the menâ€s team event, and a bronze medal in the menâ€s singles event.

Jun Mizutani

Jun Mizutani retired straight after the Olympics because of his increasing sight difficulties, but he was able to leave professional table tennis play on a high note, as he won gold in the mixed doubles event, and bronze in the menâ€s team event.

Alvaroâ€s a qualified ITTF Level 1 Coach who’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked within the top 50 in his native Argentina. He loves to compete in provincial tournaments and is always looking for ways to improve. Alvaro made his favorite memories with a racket in hand, and he joined the RacketInsight team to share his passion with other players!

Blade: Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC | Forehand: Butterfly Dignics 09c | Backhand: Butterfly Tenergy 19
Playstyle: The Controller

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How this site is financed

AllAboutTableTennis.com (AATT) is completely free to use.

However, it’s run by one person only (Martin Hughes) and has high running costs that need to be paid for.

This web site receives thousands of visitors every day and therefore, to keep it completely free to use, advertising and affiliate links appear on this web site.

However, these adverts and affiliate links do not influence the advice and recommendations given on this web site.

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How this site is financed

AllAboutTableTennis.com (AATT) is completely free to use.

However, it’s run by one person only (Martin Hughes) and has high running costs that need to be paid for.

This web site receives thousands of visitors every day and therefore, to keep it completely free to use, advertising and affiliate links appear on this web site.

However, these adverts and affiliate links do not influence the advice and recommendations given on this web site.

My intention has always been to give you the best possible information, advice and recommendations, based on my 50+ years involvement in the sport.

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Adverts appear automatically on my site, provided by third parties, and are not directly controlled by me.

When you click on an advert, it’s tracked to AATT and will generate a small payment to me.

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These work in the same way as normal links, but when you click on it, the link is tracked to AATT and, if you make a purchase, may generate a small payment to me.

They do not cost you anything to use, and any products you choose to buy will not cost you any more than if you went directly to that web site.

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Introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Mixed Doubles is one of the most exciting tournaments in the table tennis calendar.

Itâ€s a rare opportunity to see the top male and female players competing together in teams to bring Olympic medals back to their countries.

The mixed doubles event was considered by many (ourselves included) to be the best event this past Olympics, and chances are that itâ€ll be just as good, if not better, this time around in Paris.

Japan will be looking to defend its title, China is thirsty for revenge, and the other countries are more than ready to challenge them.

In this article, weâ€ll cover the structure, schedule, and stats of the mixed doubles event, historically, and for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. Letâ€s begin!

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Mixed Doubles Event Structure

32 players will compete forming 16 doubles pairs.

Each nation can only have one team in the competition, so athletes from 16 different nations will compete against each other in a single elimination bracket.

Each match will be played in a best-of-7 format, something quite unusual for a doubles event.

The 16 doubles pairs participating in the event will qualify directly if they meet certain criteria, and there are no qualifying rounds.

How to Qualify

The 16 places are distributed as follows:

• 1 spot has already been given to the host country (France)
• 6 continental qualification tournaments (Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North and Latin America) will award the mixed doubles spot to the winning pairings from each continent.
• 4 places will be awarded to the semi-finalists of the designated qualifying competition, scheduled for 11-12 April 2024 in Havirov, Czechia.
• Lastly, the last 5 highest-ranked pairs that hadnâ€t qualified by any of the other criteria by May 7, 2024, will be awarded the remaining places based on the ITTF World Ranking.

The pairings that have already qualified by having won their continental qualifying competition come from Germany, Australia, China, Egypt, Brazil, and Cuba.

ContinentDates HeldMens TeamResultsOceania2 – 3 September 2023Nicholas Lum & Minhyung Jee (AUS)ResultsAsia3 – 10 September 2023Lin Gaoyuan & Wang Yidi (CHN)ResultsEurope23 June – 2 July 2023Dang Qiu & Nina Mittelham (GER)ResultsAmericas29 October – 5 November 2023Jorge Campos & Daniela Carrazana Fonseca (CUB)
Vitor Ishiy & Bruna Takahashi (BRA)ResultsAfrica11 – 17 September 2023Omar Assar & Dina MeshrefResults

Despite Lin Gaoyuan & Wang Yidi winning the Asia event, their quota was declined by the Chinese Olympic commitee, meaning the Chinese team instead qualified through their World Rankings – Wang Chuqin & Sun Yingsha.

The Mixed Doubles World Qualification event in March 2024 allowed for 4 additional qualified pairings.

Qualified PairingRi Jong Sik & Kim Kum Yong (PRK)Wong Chun Ting & Doo Hoi Kem (HKG)Alvaro Robles & Maria Xiao (ESP)Kristian Karlsson & Christine Kallberg (SWE)World XD Qualification Event

Finally, Tuesday 7th May was the key date when the remaining 5 pairs were selected based on the ITTF Mixed Doubles World Rankings.

Qualified PairingLim Jonghoon & Shin Yubin (KOR)Tomokazu Harimoto & Hina Hayata (JPN)Lin Yun-Ju & Chen Szu-Yu (TPE)Ovidiu Ionescu & Bernadette Szocs (ROU)World Ranking Qualification

The final (16th) spot belongs to a French mixed doubles pairing as the host nation, selected by the French NOC as Alexis Lebrun and Yuan Jia Nan.

Mixed Doubles Draw & Results

Here’s the draw for the Mixed Doubles competition, with 15 matches in total required to find the gold medalists. This diagram will be kept up-to-date throughout the games.

Paris 2024 Top Seeds

Check out our full guide to the top seeds at Paris 2024 for a more in-depth analysis.

China

Even though Japan won the previous edition of the mixed doubles event, China is still the favorite to win the event.

In fact, if you take a look at the men’s and womenâ€s world top 5, there is only 1 non-Chinese player.

At the time of writing, the menâ€s top 5 are all Chinese, and the womenâ€s top 5 is composed of 4 Chinese athletes and 1 Japanese athlete (Hina Hayata).

Also unsurprisingly, itâ€s a Chinese pairing (Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha) who are the world’s #1 mixed doubles pairing.

Wang and Sun are a very successful pairing, and they have been winning events all over the world in both singles and doubles.

In singles, both players won the WTT Finals which is one of the most important events in the calendar. In addition, Sun won the Singapore Smash and the World Table Tennis Championships.

Theyâ€re equally as successful as a pairing, though. Wang and Sun won the World Table Tennis Championships (the Singapore Smash) and many other events this past year.

Wang and Sun are the strongest mixed doubles pairing because their styles complement each other perfectly.

Both players love to take the initiative and they are extremely fast when playing out rallies. They hit with tons of power and they love to take the ball early.

This style is perfect for doubles, as taking the initiative and playing close to the table takes lots of time away from their opponents.

If they donâ€t attack first, they still win most points, as Wang and Sun are masters of the counter topspin shot.

In addition to being faster than virtually everyone else, Sun is a righty and Wang is a lefty, which means that they donâ€t have to rotate completely as two righties or two lefties would.

They will be the doubles pairings to beat this Olympics.

Japan

Japan are the first and current champions, and theyâ€ll look to defend their title in Paris.

Given that gold medallist Jun Mizutani has retired from international competition, theyâ€ll try to accomplish this feat with a completely different doubles pairing.

The confirmed pairing that will represent Japan in this Paris Olympics is Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata.

Both players are in the prime of their careers, they are both top 10 in their respective singles rankings and, together, they are ranked #2 in the mixed doubles rankings.

I have to say I would be very surprised if this wasnâ€t the pairing to represent Japan, as they have fared exceptionally well together this past year.

In 2023, they won the WTT Contender Antalya and they reached the final of the most important events, the World Table Tennis Championships, the Singapore Smash, and the WTT Star Contender Lanzhou.

Even though Harimoto and Hayata have been having excellent results, they will have to find a way to beat the Chinese pairing.

They have reached 4 finals this past year, winning one and losing three.

The one time they won, they beat Felix Lebrun and Prithika Pavade, a very strong pairing for sure.

However, the three times they lost, they lost against Chinese pairings. They lost twice to the most probable Chinese double pairing, Wang and Sun, and they lost another final to Lin Shidong and Kuai Man.

Hina Hayata and Tomokazu Harimoto are very stable and strong players. They both thrive in the rally and they make few unforced mistakes.

They are extremely well-rounded, offensive players who dominate the whole pallet of offensive strokes. Both of them also have superb blocking skills.

Itâ€ll be interesting to see if they can come up with strategies to upset the Chinese pairings that have beat them time and time again.

Chinese Taipei

Chinese Taipei is the third team I believe has a real chance of winning the event.

The Chinese Taipei pairing took bronze last time around and they will surely keep at least one of the players from that team: Lin Yun-Ju.

The last time they competed in this event, Lin played with Cheng I-Ching. Cheng is also still the best player from Chinese Taipei on the womens side. As of writing this article in early 2024, sheâ€s ranked #10 in the world (compared to Linâ€s #8 ranking).

Even though Cheng I-Ching is the highest-ranked player by a wide margin, the Chinese Taipei NOC have selected Chen Szu-Yu (as we predicted) because Lin Yun-Ju has recently been competing with WR #41 Chen Szu-Yu.

Now we know that Chen Szu-Yu and Lin Yun-Ju are going to be the Chinese Taipei pairing, we can look at their performance. They have done extremely well together this past year.

They won the WTT Contender Tunis and the WTT Contender Muscat, they reached the final of the WTT Contender Almaty and the semifinal of the Singapore Smash.

Chen and Lin make a great doubles pairing because both love using their backhand flick to open up the point.

They are also extremely strong in open rallies, and they donâ€t have to move as much because theyâ€re a righty and a lefty.

South Korea

Team Korea is a strong contender for Olympic gold, no doubt about it.

South Koreaâ€s doubles pairing is ranked #3 in the world, composed of Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin.

Both players are extremely strong in singles. Shin is currently ranked #8 in the world, and Lim is ranked #18 himself. Lim and Shin are both offensive players who like to hit the ball with power.

They synergize wonderfully together, and they did very well this past year, winning two Contender events and reaching the final stages of 10 events (semi-final or better).

In addition, they are also a lefty and a righty, and they both have great forehands. However, they lack the firepower of some of the other top seeds.

Paris 2024 Match Schedule

The schedule of the mixed doubles event is as follows:

To put it simply, there are 4 rounds (round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final), and one round will be played per day, starting from Saturday 27th.

The round of 16 will be played on Saturday 27th, the quarter-finals matches will be played on Sunday 28th, the semi-finals on Monday 29th, and the final and 3rd place match on Tuesday 30th.

Mixed Doubles Event History

The Mixed Doubles event was introduced in the 2020 Olympics, so thereâ€s only one edition we can speak about. However, it was one of the best events this past Olympics, so thereâ€s plenty to discuss.

The 4 teams that reached the semi-finals were Japan, China, Chinese Taipei, and France.

China (Xu Xin / Liu Shiwen) defeated France (Emmanuel Lebesson / Jia Nan Yuan) 4 games to 0 in dominant fashion.

Leading to the finals, China had only dropped one game in the first round against Mo Zhang and Eugene Wang (Canada).

On the other side of the bracket, Japan defeated Chinese Taipei 4-1.

Japanâ€s path to the final wasnâ€t as simple as Chinaâ€s, as they had to face Germany (Patrick Franziska / Petrissa Solja) in the quarter-finals.

This match would be the turning point for team Japan, and it was one of the toughest matches of Ito and Mizutaniâ€s career.

Mizutani and Ito were down 2-1 and 3-2 in games. They were able to take the 6th game 11-8 and they played probably the most insane decider game in the history of the Olympic games.

The Japanese pair lost the 5 first points, switching sides 0-5 down. The situation was looking bleak for Ito and Mizutani but there was still room to fight back.

However, Japan was able to seize only 4 of the following 6 points, going down 2-9. They were virtually out of the Olympics at that point. It turns out that Jun Mizutani had different plans.

Jun managed to hit three forehand winners to put the score 5-9, and Germany called a timeout.

Japan won the following point but Germany scored a point off of a net ball, putting them 10-6 ahead with 4 match points.

At that point, everything would change. The Japanese team won the next 4 points by attacking with tons of power. Each of the 4 points they won was from a power loop.

The Japanese team displayed great courage to fight back but not all was done.

They had to save 3 more match points to win the match 16-14 in the decider, after coming back from 2-9 down. In total, they saved 7 match points.

If you havenâ€t seen this match, I highly recommend you watch it, or at least watch the deciding game. In fact, Iâ€ll link the last game here so you can watch it for yourselves! It is by far one of the most legendary feats of the Olympics when it comes to table tennis.

As for the third-place match, Chinese Taipei handily beat France 4-0 to take the bronze medal. It was now time for the final.

The final was a rollercoaster of emotions. China was the favorite, by far, but Japan was in top form.

China quickly took the lead 2-0. Mima Ito got off to a slow start, missing many easy shots.

In fact, the Japanese team was so strong because Mima Ito had a very aggressive playstyle that paid off incredibly well when she was able to land her attacks on the table. That didnâ€t happen consistently enough in the first two games, and China was comfortably in the lead.

In the following 3 games, however, everything would change. Team Japan gave a masterclass on how to play doubles.

The Japanese pairing won the following 3 games playing their best. Mima Ito stayed close to the table hitting and counter-hitting with great pace and speed, while Jun Mizutani dropped back a few steps to loop and counterloop with tons of spin and consistency from mid-distance.

Those 3 games showed how harmonic the playstyle of team Japan really was.

In the 6th game, however, China bounced back. They played more safely, they hardly missed any balls and they were able to seize the 6th 11-6. Team Japan had to play yet another deciding game.

This time would be very different, though. Japan came out guns blazing, they stepped on the gas and they never let go.

They won point after point and, all of a sudden, they were up 8-0 in the deciding game of an Olympic final, against China of all countries!

The last game almost looked like a victory lap on home soil. The Japanese pair finally won the last game 11-6, giving the home crowd a huge reason to celebrate.

As you can see, the mixed doubles event was epic! This yearâ€s edition is definitely NOT to be missed.

Alvaroâ€s a qualified ITTF Level 1 Coach who’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked within the top 50 in his native Argentina. He loves to compete in provincial tournaments and is always looking for ways to improve. Alvaro made his favorite memories with a racket in hand, and he joined the RacketInsight team to share his passion with other players!

Blade: Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC | Forehand: Butterfly Dignics 09c | Backhand: Butterfly Tenergy 19
Playstyle: The Controller

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