7/31/08 Update (from ITSF): Player qualification for World Champ.

January 8-11, 2009, in Nantes, France

There are several ways for players to qualify for the World Championships: ITSF Point Race; winners of the World Championship Series and International Series events; National Champions and Wild Cards.


National Champions

As far as national champions are concerned, each ITSF member federation is entitled to send its national champions in the following categories:

- Open Singles and Doubles

- Women’s Singles and Doubles

- Junior Singles and Doubles
- these players can be male or female.
Junior players have to be under 18 years old on December 31st, 2007; that is they must have been born in 1990 or after (players born before 1990 are not Juniors)

- Senior Singles and Doubles - these players can be male or female.
Senior players have to be 50 years & over on December 31st, 2007; that is they must have been born before 1958 (players born in or after 1958 are not Seniors)


All national champions must:
- either qualify in the official national qualifying tournament in their country
- OR be announced by national federations by October 31st, 2008, at the latest – if there is no national championship in their country.

When there is no qualifying event in a country, then the selection process must take place under fair, objective and democratic rules.


Wild Cards

As last year, all ITSF Regular Member federations benefit from special Wild Cards to have an extra team of players in the Men's and Women’s Doubles categories.
ITSF Associate and Provisional Members are not entitled to Wild Cards.

New this year: all ITSF Regular Member federations benefit from special Wild Cards to also have an extra team of players in the Junior and Senior Doubles categories.

New this year: apart from these, ITSF Regular Member federations with a membership of more than 500 licensees benefit from extra Wild Cards in all the Singles categories: Men's, Women’s, Junior and Senior.

New this year: ITSF Regular Member federations with a membership of more than 2000 licensees benefit from yet extra Wild Cards in all Singles and Doubles categories: Men's, Women’s, Junior and Senior.


The names of these players will also have to be announced by national federations by October 31st, 2008 – no late submission will be accepted after that date.

Each Regular Member federation will have to set up clear sporting rules for determining which teams will get the Wild Cards.

For example, the Wild Card could go to:

- the 2nd best player or team in the national championships
- or the national federation’s best ranked player or team in the ITSF Rankings
- etc.

These rules will have to be made clear to all the members within each federation.
They will also have to be forwarded to ITSF.


Check the list of already qualified players.