Today marks the beginning of the FIFA World Cup and we thought it would be topical to announce further details of the inaugural SMPT World Cup next year!
World Cup qualification starts at the first event of the 2014-2015 season, the UK Open. World Ranking points will be up for grabs in every game at each of the six ranking events throughout the season, and the top 4 ranked players from each nation after the final event, the 2015 World Masters, will be invited to represent their country in the SMPT World Cup.
The SMPT World Cup in 2015 is scheduled to be staged on Friday 21 August, the day before the 2015 UK Open. It will be a great way to kick off the new season as all players who qualify for the World Cup can also play in the UK Open over the following two days!
The format at the World Cup will see nations represented by their top 4 singles players who will play as a team. The nations will be drawn into groups of 3 or 4 (depending on the number of countries represented). The draw will be seeded, with the combined ranking points of each nation’s top four players at the end of the 2014-15 season used to determine the top 4 nations. The top 4 nations will be placed in separate quarters of the draw.
The Group Stages of the tournament will see a total of 4 points awarded for individual mat wins (1 points per mat) with an additional 2 points available for the aggregate shot difference across all 4 mats. Therefore 6 points are on offer in each game. In the Knockout Stages should a match finish in a 3-3 tie, then we will have a tie break based on that used in SMPT ranking events.
This promises to be another exceptional event in the SMPT calendar and more details will be made available on our website in due course. We look forward to seeing you there!