(by Steve Hopkins)

The ITTF is launching a mixed team event that features men and women playing side by side.  The inaugural event, called the ITTF Mixed Team World Cup will be held in Chengdu next month.  Eighteen teams have been invited to participate based upon results of continental events and world team rankings (with a maximum of six teams per continent).

The teams include power squads like China, Taipei, Germany, Japan, and Korea.  It also include TeamUSA and Puerto Rico from this hemisphere as well as Egypt from the African continent and Australia.  In alphabetical order the full list of 16 teams is as follows:

Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Sweden, and USA.

The event will begin on December 4th with the final matches taking place on December 10th.

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