The Men's singles table tennis event will be part of the table tennis program

Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London is scheduled to take place from Saturday 28 July to Wednesday 8 August 2012 at ExCeL Exhibition Centre. 172 athletes, 86 men and 86 women, will compete in four events. Table tennis has appeared at the Summer Olympics on six previous occasions...

 at the 2012 Summer Olympics

2012 Summer Olympics

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...

 in London. The event will take place from Saturday 28 July to Thursday 2 August 2012 at ExCeL Exhibition Centre

ExCeL Exhibition Centre

ExCeL London is an exhibitions and conference centre in the London Borough of Newham, England. It is located on a site on the northern quay of the Royal Victoria Dock in London Docklands, between Canary Wharf and London City Airport.- History :The centre was built by Sir Robert McAlpine, opened...

.
The tournament will a single elimination tournament with a third place playoff

Third place playoff

The third place playoff is a single match that is included in many sporting knockout tournaments to decide which competitor or team will be credited with finishing third and fourth. The teams that compete in the third place playoffs are usually the two losing semi-finalists in a particular...

 played between the two losing semi-finalists. In the 2008 event all three medals were won by Chinese athletes with Ma Lin

Ma Lin (table tennis)

Ma Lin is a male table tennis player. He is the world's number four ranked player as of June, 2011 in the International Table Tennis Federation ....

 taking gold.

Qualification

As hosts Great Britain

Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Great Britain is scheduled to compete at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom from July 27 to August 12, 2012 as the host nation...

 qualify one athlete automatically. The top 28 players on the International Table Tennis Federation's ranking list immediately after the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships

2011 World Table Tennis Championships

The GAC GROUP 2011 World Table Tennis Championships was held at the Ahoy indoor sporting arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands from May 8 to May 15, 2011. This decision was announced in February 2008. It was the 51st edition contested. The tournament was organised by the ITTF and The Netherlands Table...

, which finish on 15 May 2011 in the Netherlands, will qualify for the singles events at Games. No nation can have more than two players per gender in the singles events at the Games, so some players below 28th place may be given a qualification berth based on their ranking. For example five of the world's top six ranked male singles players are from China.

Six continental qualification tournaments will then be used to assign a total of 40 places between 1 June 2011 and 22 April 2012. A final qualification tournament will take place in May 2012 to assign a further two places and one invitational place will be allocated by the International Table Tennis Federation

International Table Tennis Federation

The International Table Tennis Federation is the governing body for all national table tennis associations.-Founding history:The ITTF was founded in 1926, the nine founding members being Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, Germany, Hungary, India, Sweden and Wales...

 (ITTF).

Provisional qualifiers through World Rankings

Provisional list of Olympic qualifiers after the 15 May 2011 release of the World Rankings. Skipped entries (because of the two player from each country maximum) from the World Rankings are included.

1.   Wang Hao
   Wang Hao (table tennis)
   Wáng Hào is a Chinese table tennis player. He became the World Champion in Men's Singles in Yokohama, Japan in May 2009, defeating 3-time World Champion Wang Liqin 4-0. Other notable accomplishments are the 3-time World Cup Champion in 2007, 2008 and 2010, Singles Silver medalist at the 2004...
   
    (CHN 1)
2.   Timo Boll
   Timo Boll
   Timo Boll is a German professional table tennis player who currently plays with Borussia Düsseldorf and is the German No.1 of the German Table Tennis National League...
   
    (GER 1)
3.   Zhang Jike
   Zhang Jike
   Zhang Jike is a Chinese table tennis player.Zhang Jike is the reigning World Champion and World Cup winner in singles. Should he win the Olympic gold medal in singles, he will be the fourth male player in the history of table tennis to achieve a career grand slam.- Equipment :Zhang Jike currently...
   
    (CHN 2)

   skipped:   Ma Lin

   Ma Lin (table tennis)

   Ma Lin is a male table tennis player. He is the world's number four ranked player as of June, 2011 in the International Table Tennis Federation ....

   
    (CHN 3)

   skipped:   Ma Long

   Ma Long

   Ma Long is a male table tennis player. He is now ranked 1° as of October, 2011 in the International Table Tennis Federation .- Equipment :...

   
    (CHN 4)

4.   Jun Mizutani
   Jun Mizutani
   Jun Mizutani is a male Japanese table tennis player. He became the youngest Japanese national champion at the age of 17...
   
    (JPN 1)

   skipped:   Xu Xin

   Xu Xin

   Xu Xin is a Chinese table tennis player.-Equipment:He uses a blade Stiga Offensive Wood NCT, and in his forehand a Hurricane III and a Stiga Boost TX in his backhand.-Career records:Singles...

   
    (CHN 5)

5.   Vladimir Samsonov
   Vladimir Samsonov
   Vladimir Samsonov is a Belarusian professional table tennis player, ranked ninth in the world as of October 2011...
   
    (BLR 1)

   skipped:   Wang Liqin

   Wang Liqin

   Wang Liqin is a Chinese table tennis player. As of October, 2011, he is ranked 8th in the International Table Tennis Federation . He began playing at the age of 6 and was picked for the Chinese men's national squad in 1993 when he was only 15 years old. Wang is the last man since Jiang Jialiang to...

   
    (CHN 6)

6.   Joo Se-Hyuk (KOR 1)
7.   Oh Sang-Eun (KOR 2)

   skipped:   Chen Qi (CHN 7)

   skipped:   Ryu Seung-Min (KOR 3)

8.   Chuang Chih-Yuan (TPE 1)
9.   Dimitrij Ovtcharov
   Dimitrij Ovtcharov
   Dimitrij Ovtcharov is a Ukrainian-born German table tennis player.As of February 2011, he is ranked #15 in the world by the International Table Tennis Federation ....
   
    (GER 2)
10.   Gao Ning
    Gao Ning
    Gao Ning is a male Table Tennis player from Singapore. He is considered Singapore's best male player with a world ranking of 16 as of May, 2011...
    
     (SIN 1)

    skipped:   Hao Shuai

    Hao Shuai

    Hao Shuai is a Chinese table tennis player.-Career records:Singles *World Championships: QF .*Pro Tour winner : Serbian Open 2007. China Open 2008. Slovenian Open 2009. Runner-up : Malaysia Open 2003. China , Korea Open 2009.*Pro Tour Grand Finals appearances: 3...

    
     (CHN 8)

    skipped:   Bastian Steger (GER 3)

    skipped:   Patrick Baum

    Patrick Baum (table tennis)

    Patrick Baum is a male table tennis player from Germany. Since 2008, he has won several medals in singles and team events in the World Table Tennis Championships, in the Table Tennis World Cup, and in the Table Tennis European Championships.-References:...

    
     (GER 4)

11.   Tang Peng
    Tang Peng
    Tang Peng is a table tennis player from Hong Kong, China. He recently married Tie Yana, another table tennis player representing Hong Kong.-Career records:Singles *World Championships: round of 16 ....
    
     (HKG 1)
12.   Michael Maze
    Michael Maze
    Michael Maze is a male table tennis player from Faxe, Denmark. He normally plays both in the men's singles and in men's doubles. As of 2005, he is one of the top five left-handed players in the world. His strength is in his strong forehand loop and lobbing. He is considered to be one of the best,...
    
     (DEN 1)
13.   Alexey Smirnov (RUS 1)

    skipped:   Lee Jung-Woo (KOR 4)

14.   Adrien Mattenet (FRA 1)
15.   Werner Schlager
    Werner Schlager
    Werner Schlager is a former world champion table tennis player from Austria.-Career:Schlager began playing table tennis when he was six years old, learning from his father and brother who were also top Austrian players, making them ideal training partners...
    
     (AUT 1)
16.   Jiang Tianyi (HKG 2)
17.   Kalinikos Kreanga
    Kalinikos Kreanga
    Kalinikos Kreanga is a Greek table tennis player. Born as Călin Creangă, he chose to defect from Communist-ruled Romania at the age of 17 while he was participating in the European Table Tennis Youth Championships in Luxembourg in 1989.Born in Bistriţa, Romania, Kreanga started to play table...
    
     (GRE 1)
18.   Seiya Kishikawa
    Seiya Kishikawa
    Seiya Kishikawa is a male Japanese table tennis player. He paired with Jun Mizutani in men's doubles competitions, the duo won four consecutive national titles from 2007 to 2010. They also won a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships and two titles at the ITTF Pro Tour...
    
     (JPN 2)

    skipped:   Christian Süß

    Christian Süß

    Christian Süß is a German table tennis player.At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Süß won the silver medal as part of the German men's team, together with Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov....

    
     (GER 5)

    skipped:   Kim Min-Seok

    Kim Min-Seok (table tennis)

    Kim Min-Seok is a South Korean male table tennis player.He is currently one of the top 3 players under the age of 21 in International Table Tennis Federation , together with Chinese Xu Xin and Koki Niwa of Japan....

    
     (KOR 5)

19.   Jörgen Persson
    Jörgen Persson
    Jörgen Persson is a Swedish table tennis player. In two memorable World Table Tennis Championships finals he faced fellow Swede Jan-Ove Waldner in 1989 and 1991, losing the former and winning the latter....
    
     (SWE 1)
20.   Chen Weixing
    Chen Weixing
    Chen Weixing is an Austrian table tennis player of Chinese origin. He has played for SVS Lower Austria for several years....
    
     (AUT 2)
21.   Adrian Crişan
    Adrian Crisan
    Adrian Crişan is a Romanian professional table tennis player currently playing for German table tennis club Werder Bremen. Based on his world ranking on the 16 May 2011 he qualified to compete in the men's singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.-Career:Crişan began playing table tennis aged...
    
     (ROU 1)

    skipped:   Kaii Yoshida

    Kaii Yoshida

    Kaii Yoshida is a China-born Japanese table tennis player who is ranked among the top fifty athletes in his sport. Kaii was spotted by a Japanese Coach in 1997...

    
     (JPN 3)

22.   Jean-Michel Saive
    Jean-Michel Saive
    Jean-Michel Saive is a Belgian professional table tennis player.Born in Liège in a table tennis playing family, Saive was predestined to become a very good table tennis player and began playing as a small boy...
    
     (BEL 1)
23.   Panagiotis Gionis
    Panagiotis Gionis
    Panagiotis Gionis is a Greek table tennis player, currently playing for French club Vaillante Angers Sports TT. In May 2011, he qualified directly for the London 2012 Summer Olympics based on his ITTF world ranking.- References :...
    
     (GRE 2)

    skipped:   Kenta Matsudaira

    Kenta Matsudaira

    is a Japanese table tennis player. Winner of 2006 World Junior Championships in boys' singles. He was ranked as the number one junior player in the world. Kenta has supposedly one of the world's best serves...

    
     (JPN 4)

24.   Zoran Primorac
    Zoran Primorac
    Zoran Primorac is an accomplished male table tennis player from Croatia. He is considered to be among the best European players in the last 25 years .-Biography:Primorac was born in Zadar and started playing...
    
     (CRO 1)
25.   Pär Gerell (SWE 2)

    skipped:   Seo Hyun-Deok (KOR 6)

26.   Yang Zi
    Yang Zi
    Yang Zi is a table tennis player representing Singapore.Yang Zi began his table tennis in 2004 when he first participated in the ITTF Pro Tour. He has represented Singapore in many major events such as 15th Asian Games, 18th Commonwealth Games and 23rd SEA Games...
    
     (SIN 2)

    skipped:   Cho Eon-Rae (KOR 7)

27.   Alexander Shibaev (RUS 2)
28.   Bojan Tokič
    Bojan Tokič
    Bojan Tokič is a Slovenian table tennis player of Bosnian origin.- Career :...
    
     (SLO 1)
29.   Paul Drinkhall
    Paul Drinkhall
    Paul Drinkhall is a British table tennis player, currently the highest-ranked British player in the World. He is the current English Champion, winning the competition in March 2011. He is coached by Liu Jia-Yi, and is in Great Britain's Team Visa, an initiative to support young sports people to...
    
     (GBR 1)
30.   Tom Allan
    Tom Allan
    Thomas Allan was a minister and evangelist of the Church of Scotland, broadcaster, author, columnist and pioneer of practical church outreach in social work, primarily in the city of Glasgow...
    
    (GBR 2)

Schedule

Dates	Round
28 July 2012	First round
29 July 2012	Second round
30 July 2012	Third round, Fourth round
31 July to 1 August 2012	Quarterfinals
2 August 2012	Semifinals, bronze medal match, gold medal match