The draw for the water polo tournaments at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore (July 11 – 24) will take place tomorrow afternoon in Budapest. The upcoming competition will be the fourth World Championships in four years and the third consecutive to be hosted by an Asian country.
Croatia’s male team and the USA women will arrive in Singapore as the reigning champions.
Two teams will make their debuts at the Worlds. Singapore men will appear at the Championships for the first time (the female team of the host nation played at the WCH in Doha last year). Croatia will have both national teams at the World Championships, as the ladies secured their first-ever participation thanks to an 8th-place finish at the 2024 European Championships.
The seedings for the draw have been determined based on the standings from qualification tournaments: the Olympic Games, the World Cup, and continental tournaments.
The first pot of the men’s draw includes the Olympic medal winners: Serbia, Croatia, and the USA, along with Spain, the gold medalist from the World Cup.
For the women’s draw, the highest seedings feature Spain, Australia, and the Netherlands, which all reached the podium in Paris, along with Greece, which recently secured its first-ever gold medal in the World Cup. The reigning champion, the USA, qualified for the World Championships as the gold medalist at the Pan American Games. Therefore, the Americans will be placed in the second pot.
Brazil is an underdog to watch in the men’s draw. As the gold medalist at the Pan American Games, Brazil will have a relatively high position in the draw, in the second pot, alongside Greece, Hungary, and Italy. Greece and Hungary are in this line as medal winners in the World Cup, while Italy is included as the third-placed team from the 2024 European Championships.
2025 World Championships, the seedings for the draw
Pot 1: Serbia, Croatia, United States of America, Spain.
Pot 2: Greece, Hungary, Italy, Brazil.
Pot 3: Montenegro , Romania, Australia, Canada.
Pot 4: Japan, China, South Africa, Singapore.
Women
Pot 1: Spain, Australia, Netherlands, Greece.
Pot 2: Hungary, Italy, France, United States of America.
Pot 3: Great Britain Croatia, New Zealand, Argentina.
Pot 4: China, Japan, South Africa, Singapore.
The teams will be split into four groups of four teams. The group winners will advance directly to the quarterfinals. The 2nd-placed and 3rd-placed will go to the cross-over round.
