Nineteen teams, eighteen of them starting from four regional qualifying zones, Asia, Australasia, Europe, and Pan America, contested for the Thomas Cup during the 1960-1961 seasons.
Despite missing its best known singles player, Charoen Wattanasin, Thailand again prevailed in the Asian zone by beating, consecutively, India (6–3), three time former champion Malaya (7–2), and Pakistan (8–1).
Of note in these ties, the talented Nandu Natekar had a hand in all of the individual matches which India salvaged, while Malaya's Eddie Choong, well past his prime at a fairly young age, was routinely beaten in both of his singles.
The same two-way American zone race ended as before with the United States beating Canada 7–2.
Evergreen Joe Alston and Wynn Rogers still led the way in doubles for the USA which also had a small but competent cadre of international level singles players.