It follows the conclusion of the programme here at the Summer Youth Olympic Games where the mixed team competition was described as "very pleasing" by the world governing body.

Table tennis first appeared on the Olympic programme at Seoul 1988 but mixed doubles has never been part of the Games.

Male and female doubles events were replaced by two team competitions at Beijing 2008.

Doubles still features, however, in the Olympic team competition and at the individual World Championships.

But the biennial World Team Championships, held this year in Tokyo, consists only of singles matches.

Farago insisted, though, the doubles events were dropped from the Olympic programme with the proviso they remained part of the team event.

"Mixed team event is something we would like to develop and introduce further at different ITTF events," she told insidethegames.

"We applied for mixed doubles to be included in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in addition to the two singles and two team events, but this concept was generally not accepted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for Rio as there were no additional medal events.

"Based on the direction the IOC go in Agenda 2020, we may again push for the inclusion of mixed doubles at Tokyo 2020."

Mixed doubles also proved popular at the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow ©Getty Images



The IOC has shown reluctance to add additional disciplines within existing sports to an already packed programme, but at London 2012 a mixed doubles tennis competition was held for the first time since Paris 1924.

It is also one of five events that makes up the Olympic badminton programme.

The success of the competition here can only have helped, with the victory of China's Fan Zhendong's over Japanese rival Yuto Muramatsu in the singles and team finals among the most entertaining and high quality sporting moments so far, across any discipline.

The fact the Olympics in 2020 are being held in Japan, a nation where table tennis remains extremely popular, could be a further boost to the campaign to get mixed doubles introduced.

Yet with China, followed by fellow East Asian countries, dominating the medals table here, there is a danger it would only provide another competition in which an Asian nation is virtually guaranteed victory.

This comes as the ITTF is working hard to improve standards in the rest of the world, with a more competitive global balance duly seen as vital if the sport's appeal and international audience is to be maintained.

As was exclusively revealed by insidethegames in April, ITTF President Adham Sharara is stepping down at the end of this month to take up a new chairman role, with German deputy Thomas Weikert taking over the Presidency.

A key part of Sharara's new role will be spending more time independently to help Europe and other parts of the world to rise and challenge the Chinese dominance, something he "believes will generate a lot of interest in our sport and will make for a healthier balance".

There are currently six European players in the top 20 of the men's and women's world rankings but five of the female players are of Chinese origin.

No European medals being won in Nanjing.

Dazzling performances from Fan Zhendong suggest a new era of Chinese dominance has already begun ©Getty Images



Farago claims she is not unduly worried by this and believes the work the ITTF is doing to promote the sport globally is already paying off, citing the historic medals won here by Hugo Calderano of Brazil and Lily Zhang of the United States as evidence. 

"Europe did not win any medals here in Nanjing, however two European men and two European women made the quarterfinals which is still a good performance," she told insidethegames.

"One of the reasons why Europe did not go further in the competition was the emergence of Latin America and North America.

"Both continents claimed [bronze] medals for the first time in history of table tennis here in Nanjing, which shows the success of the ITTF development programme developing these markets."

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