Jörg Roßkopf has gradually had enough of the uncertainty. Even shortly before the Mixed Team World Cup starting on Sunday in Chengdu, the national table tennis coach and his players still do not know the mode for the Olympic premiere for mixed teams in 2028, which was decided in the spring.
“At some point,” Roßkopf told “SID” before the flight to China, “at some point we have to know which system applies in Los Angeles.”
However, shortly after Chengdu, the world association ITTF will probably confirm the World Cup tournament in the Middle Kingdom as a framework for the Olympic competition. Instead of previously separate team tournaments, only one competition would probably take place with a mixed doubles, a singles each for women and men and possibly also a doubles each for women and men.
The counting method takes some getting used to. In every match over three sets, each round is worth one point; eight points are necessary for a team to win overall.
In Chengdu, Roßkopf’s top trio with Dang Qiu, Benedikt Duda and Patrick Franziska forms the men’s squad. The women are represented by the European team champions Sabine Winter, Annett Kaufmann and Nina Mittelham.
“The tournament in Chengdu is important so that we can best be placed in the top four at the Olympics based on the world rankings. But we also want to make progress in finding the right mixed doubles and the two doubles combinations,” says Roßkopf, describing the objective for the eight-day tournament.
But important guidelines are still missing, as Roßkopf reveals: “We still don’t know the nomination criteria and don’t know how many places are available.”