Skip to content
Table Tennis Global

Tournaments

Qualifying Is A Different Sport — And Japan Plays It Most

The rounds before the main draw have their own win-rate hierarchy, and the countries that win there are not always the ones you expect.

Topspin Data Desk · Data desk · 2026-07-07T10:22:05.453Z · 6 min read · Rating method

Qualifying rounds are where depth gets tested before television starts. The countries that win there are the ones sending enough players to fill a draw and still advance them.

Qualifying win rate by country (singles, min 30 qual matches)

MON (74 matches)85.1%CHN (875 matches)84.1%JPN (1,456 matches)75.7%POR (646 matches)72.8%UKR (125 matches)72%AIN (128 matches)71.1%AUS (216 matches)69.9%NGR (131 matches)69.5%GER (1,222 matches)69.1%EGY (370 matches)68.9%MDA (61 matches)68.9%KOR (1,066 matches)68.3%
2026-W26
Breakdown

MON leads qualifying win rate at 85.1%; Japan plays the most qualifying volume.

Source: ITTF/WTT-style rankings and match dataset. Snapshot 2026-W26.

Singles qualification-stage matches, grouped by player country, minimum 30 such matches. Dataset snapshot 2026-W26 (women/boys/girls); men's ranking snapshot is 2026-W9 in this dataset. Figures reflect available rankings and match rows in this database.

MON leads the qualifying win-rate table at 85.1%, with China close behind at 84.1%. The rate matters, but so does the volume behind it.

Japan is the volume story. Japanese players play more qualifying matches than any other country in this dataset, and they win them at 75.7%. That is the combination that actually builds senior careers: enough attempts, and a high enough hit rate.

The qualifying table: MON 85.1% (74); CHN 84.1% (875); JPN 75.7% (1,456); POR 72.8% (646); UKR 72.0% (125); AIN 71.1% (128); AUS 69.9% (216); NGR 69.5% (131).

Caveat: qualifying fields are weaker than main draws, so a high qualifying rate does not translate directly to main-draw success. It is a pipeline measure, not a title-prediction measure. But a country absent from this list is a country not sending players through the front door.