The 2022-2025 Table Tennis Strategic Calendar marks out the designated weeks scheduled for ITTF and WTT events, giving longer-term clarity for all stakeholders. Member Associations will benefit from greater certainty, and athletes can better map out their annual playing schedule.
“The 2022-2025 Table Tennis Strategic Calendar is one of our most anticipated projects,” said ITTF Group CEO Steve Dainton. “I’m extremely proud to unveil it today; this ambitious roadmap calendar will make table tennis stronger and more attractive.”
“When we were preparing the ITTF Strategic Plan in 2018, we did a survey, and 86% of the respondents indicated it was essential to have an international events calendar that is easily understood and provides a compelling narrative for the sport,” explained Dainton.
“Despite all the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we started working on the Strategic Calendar in 2020 in full partnership with our Member Associations, local organising committees, commercial and media partners and fans. Now it is ready, we are confident that we are better prepared to achieve our common goal of further developing table tennis.”
“We will be releasing the first part of the 2022 Calendar very soon and will release more parts of the year as events are confirmed. However, even though we are more hopeful that the world will now start to return to normalcy, based on our last 18 months experience, we need to understand that flexibility will be required as things can change very fast.”
As the table tennis community starts looking beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the plan sets out ITTF and WTT’s long-term mission to support and enhance the game. By defining hosting periods for Table Tennis Family events, this long-term structural calendar will create consistent stories.
Every year, the WTT Series, showcasing the sport’s best and up-and-coming table tennis players in up to 34 events worldwide, will feature four Grand Smashes in spring, summer, and autumn, while the season-ending WTT Cup Finals will be held in November. The ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals are scheduled in May-June of each year.
A WTT Youth Event and the ITTF World Youth Championships will be the first and last events of the year, respectively, reinforcing the ITTF and WTT’s commitment to its Day One to World Number One playing pathway.
A minimum of nine weeks has been designated for the Table Tennis family to schedule events within the annual calendar.
The 2022-2025 Table Tennis Strategic Calendar* is available here .
* Subject to change pending ITTF/WTT host commitment requirements and scheduling decisions.