USA Juniors Set for 2010 World Junior Table Tennis Championships

Bratislava, Slovak Republic – The United States Table Tennis Association (USATT) will be represented by a squad of six juniors at the 2010 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Junior Table Tennis Championships held December 4-11 in Bratislava, Slovak Republic.  The tournament, started in 2003, boasts 96 boys and 95 girls from 20 different countries throughout the world competing in team, singles, doubles and mixed doubles events.

First up are the team events where the US Boys’ National Team finds itself seeded 16th overall and in Group B.  They start things off Saturday against defending champion and second seeded China, followed by No.8 Poland.  Then on Saturday they wrap up the first stage of team competition against No.17 Paraguay and No.9 India.  The top three teams in each group advance to the second stage to compete for positions 1-12 while the bottom two teams in each group battle it out for positions 13-20.  The US Boys’ team finished 13th a year ago at this event.

The US Girls’ National Team is in group C and seeded 12th, which is where they finished a year ago.  They begin competition on Saturday as well against No.19 Australia and No.5 Germany followed up with No.3 Korea and No.14 Czech Republic on Sunday.  As with the boys’ team competition, the top three from each group advance to play for positions 1-12, while the bottom two teams in each group are left with positions 13-20.

Team competition wraps up on December 8 followed by events in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, which conclude on December 11.

About USA Table Tennis: USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States. Created in 1933 and headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo. Its staff serves the 9,000-plus members and nearly 300 clubs that are affiliated with USATT. It oversees a wide variety of membership services, the national teams, rules of the game and numerous online instructional and historical articles. USATT is governed and run by the nine-member board of directors, committees and professional staff. USATT is affiliated with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), the world governing body for table tennis, as well as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).