With the sound of balls bouncing off the 12 tables at London’s Copper Box Arena, the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships 2026 got officially underway on Tuesday.

A century after the inaugural Championships were held in England in 1926, the tournament returns to its birthplace, marking the milestone with men’s and women’s team competitions featuring the world’s top teams.

How does the competition work?

Coming back to England's shores after 29 years, the start of the competition sees Stage 1 get under way.

This is where the best teams are separated from the rest, with 64 nations battling it out for one of the 32 spots in Stage 2.

First on the menu is Stage 1B, running from 28 April till 1 May, with 56 men’s and 56 women’s nations bidding to qualify to join the top seven seeds and hosts England at OVO Arena Wembley.

The 56 teams seeded in positions 9-64 compete in this stage, divided into 14 groups of four teams each.

Even those early matches should provide some gripping performances as some of the sport’s biggest names make appearances, including Brazil’s Hugo Calderano, Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna, Egypt’s Hana Goda, and US’s Lily Zhang.

All 14 group winners along with the six best-performing second-placed teams progress directly to Stage 2, while the remaining eight second-placed teams move into a single preliminary knockout round, where four teams will advance.

But before jumping to Stage 2, Stage 1A will see the first matches at OVO Arena Wembley, and some matches they should be.

Over the weekend (2-3 May), the top teams seeded 1-8 are going to duke it out for top seeding positions in Stage 2.

Every win in this stage will have an impact on each team’s Stage 2 positioning, meaning all eight teams will have to be on the ball right from the off.

Once Stage 1A and Stage 1B conclude, 32 teams progress in the Main Draw, also known as Stage 2, taking place exclusively at OVO Arena Wembley from 4 May till 10 May.

Here, it’s all or nothing—if a team loses, they are out of the tournament; if a team wins, they progress to the next round until only two teams are left.

The finals, happening on 10 May for both men and women, will decide who will be crowned the champion.

Who are some of the favorites to get the crown?

China has dominated the world of team table tennis for decades.

The last time someone else was crowned a champion was in 2010, when Singapore won the women’s tournament in Moscow.

For the men's edition, one would have to go all the way back to 2000, when Sweden’s squad lifted the trophy in Kuala Lumpur.

So while it is difficult to look past the Chinese teams for favorites, anything can happen.

In the men’s competition, China is still the top team—but compared to past eras, they’re more vulnerable.

Led by the world No. 1, Wang Chuqin, the team can rely on a really strong team with multiple top-10 players.

But while they are still the benchmark, some believe they are no longer completely untouchable.

Japan and France seem to be the most realistic challengers to the Chinese reign, with Germany, the ROK, and Chinese Taipei being strong potentials for an upset.

In the women’s tournament, the chance for the Chinese team to be knocked off their throne is even less likely.

They have a really dominant team, being able to lean on stars such as Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng.

Many of the sport’s pundits consider the depth gap compared to the rest of the world to be still huge, so anything other than China winning gold would be a major shock.

The team that could push them is Japan, consistently the second-best team globally, but even so, they rarely beat China in full team ties.