2026 Asian Table Tennis Championships: Dates, Tickets & Venue (Tashkent)

Seven days of Asia’s fastest sport

From 19 to 25 October 2026, Tashkent hosts the 29th Asian Table Tennis Championships. That is a full week of play in a city better known for blue-tiled madrasas than for topspin. For one week, though, the continent’s deepest talent pool is here: Japan, China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and the rest of Asia’s table tennis powers.

The headline names are clear. Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan arrives as defending champion. China sends its national team, and in this sport that usually means a squad of medal favourites. Asian titles count for a lot here, because the continent produces most of the world’s top-ranked players.

Dates, tickets and where the venue details live

The championships run from Monday 19 to Sunday 25 October 2026. Continental championships usually play team events in the first half of the week. Individual draws then narrow towards finals at the weekend.

• Organiser: the Asian Table Tennis Union, the continental governing body, with the Uzbek national federation as host.
• Venue and ticket links: on the organiser’s official channels. That is also where the daily session schedule lives.
• Prices: set by the organiser and shown on its ticketing pages. This guide doesn’t print a figure.

At events like this, fans who care about the medal matches usually pick the final two or three days. Early-round sessions tend to be the easier seats to get, and they often run several tables at once. You can watch a dozen nations play in a single afternoon.

What the arena feels like

Table tennis indoors is an odd mix of noise and hush. The courts are boxed in by low barriers and lit hard from above, with a red or blue floor and dark tables. During a rally the whole hall goes quiet except for the ball: a fast, dry click-clack that speeds up as players step back from the table.

Then the point ends and the noise breaks. Team benches shout, coaches lean in during the one timeout each side gets, and players wipe down at the towel break every six points. In the early rounds several matches run side by side, so the cheering comes from different corners of the hall at once.

Watching a rally in a Tashkent hall

Spectators at table tennis follow a few unwritten rules, and they matter more here than in most sports.

• Stay still during the point. Fans move to and from their seats between points or at changes of end, not while the ball is live.
• Flash is off. A flash can put a server off, so regular spectators keep phones dark during play.
• Cheer after, not during. Applause and chants come once the point is over. Japanese and Chinese supporters often shout players’ names right as the rally ends.
• Cash and cards both matter. The Uzbek so’m is the currency. Hotels and larger venues take cards, but cafés and taxis outside the centre often expect cash.
• Ride-hailing is normal. Locals and visitors mostly get around by Yandex Go rather than by hailing cabs in the street.

A few words of Russian or Uzbek go a long way. Rahmat (Uzbek) and spasibo (Russian) both mean thank you, and both are used daily.

Getting around Tashkent in October

Most visitors fly into Tashkent International Airport, which is a short drive from the centre. Many nationalities can enter Uzbekistan visa-free, but the rules depend on your passport.

The Tashkent Metro is worth riding even if the venue is a taxi away. Stations such as Kosmonavtlar and Alisher Navoi have chandeliers, marble and Soviet-era mosaics. Visitors usually stay near Amir Timur Square, which is central to most of the city.

October is one of the gentler months here. Days are usually mild and evenings turn noticeably cool, so spectators heading home after a late session tend to carry a layer.

Between sessions: plov, bazaars and old Tashkent

Rest days and mornings leave time to see the city. The obvious lunch is plov, Uzbekistan’s rice dish with lamb, carrot and chickpeas. It is cooked in huge cauldrons at the Central Asian Plov Centre (Besh Qozon) near the TV tower, and the plov there is traditionally a midday meal.

• Chorsu Bazaar: a green-domed market hall with spice sellers, dried fruit and stacks of round non bread.
• Hazrati Imam (Khast Imam) complex: mosques and madrasas in the old town, home to an early Quran manuscript.
• Amir Timur Square and Broadway (Sayilgoh Street): the modern centre, for an evening walk after play ends.

Seven days of top-level table tennis and one of Central Asia’s most walkable capitals make a good pairing. Most fans who travel for the medal rounds stay for at least the final weekend.