The Hungarian capital, currently also bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, has not staged the World Championships since 1950 and the announcement came after ITTF officials visited the Syma Hall, where competition would take place if Budapest is confirmed as the host city.

Table tennis events are scheduled to be held in Székesfehérvár in Central Hungary if Budapest is successful with its bid for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.

It is expected to be named as the venue for the event at the ITTF’s Annual General Meeting in Kuala Lumpur on March 1.

ITTF chief executive Judit Farago says the organisation received enquiries about hosting the World Championships in three years’ time from “four countries on four continents” but by the time of the October 31 deadline, Budapest was the only “valid bid received”.

“Some potential bidders finally decided to target the World Team Championships in 2020, also the ITTF is having a transition period where size of the World Championships is under review and reduced, which gives good chances for those organisers and cities which before could not accommodate such a big event [800 players before, now reduced to approximately 550],” Farago said.

“This is something new and not very well known to many.

“It is now up to the Hungarian Table Tennis Association to make a good presentation to the AGM delegates, and to convince them that the event may be allocated to them.”

Hosting the ITTF World Championships could provide another boost to Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 Games, where they are locked in a four-way battle for the event along with Los Angeles, Paris and Rome.

The city also stepped in to stage the 2017 International Swimming Federation World Championships after original host city Guadalajara in Mexico pulled out due to fears over falling oil prices in 2015.

Budapest hosts an ITTF World Tour event, the Hungarian Open, each year and the Hungarian capital will stage this year’s European Championships from October 18 to 23.

The World Championships is table tennis’ main showcase event in their calendar and the 2015 edition, held in Suzhou, China, attracted a worldwide audience of more than 450 million people, including 330 million watching on television across 170 countries.

The World Team Championships are due to be held in Kuala Lumpur from February 28 to March 6, with Düsseldorf, Germany the next host of the individual competition in 2017.