The Men's singles table tennis event was a part of the Table Tennis program and took place at the Peking University Gymnasium. The tournament started on August 19 and the finals took place on August 23.
77 athletes from 44 countries took part in the men's singles event. The tournament was a single elimination tournament with a third place playoff played between the two losing semi-finalists. The top 16 seeds in the tournament received a bye to the third round. Seeds 17 through 32 received a bye to the second round, seeds 33 to 51 received a bye to the first round and seeds 52 to 77 contested the preliminary round.
China
