Chinese world champion and world number one Ma Long heads the stellar list of competitors for the upcoming ITTF Men's World Cup ©Getty Images

Current world champion and world number one Ma Long of China will bid to banish the demons of his 2014 final defeat when the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Men’s World Cup begins in 50 days time in Halmstad, Sweden.

Ma lost a tense final in seven games to compatriot Zhang Jike at the 2014 event in Düsseldorf, eventually succumbing to a 8-11, 11-4, 13-11, 7-11, 2-11, 11-5, 12-10 loss, and he leads the list of players due to compete in Halmstad.

The competition features 20 participants, made up of 17 who have qualified through their Continental Cups as well as the current world champion, a host country player and a wildcard.

Ma, who will be hoping to earn a second World Cup crown, reached the event by virtue of his status as world champion, while European Championships doubles silver medallist Kristian Karlsson has been chosen as Sweden’s representative.

Fellow Swede Anton Kallberg received the wildcard entry for the tournament, which begins on October 16 and runs through to October 18.

Other stellar names who will be competing at this year’s Men’s World Cup include world number two and 2015 Asian Cup Table Tennis Tournament victor Xin Xu of China, as well as NN Table Tennis Club 2015 Europe Top 16 winner Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany, who also triumphed at the inaugural European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan in July.

German European Games champion Dimitrij Ovtcharov is also due to compete at the ITTF Men's World Cup
German European Games champion Dimitrij Ovtcharov is also due to compete at the ITTF Men's World Cup ©Getty Images

Egyptian Omar Assar’s success at the 2015 ITTF-Africa Cup In Yaounde, Cameroon in July saw him qualify for the competition in Halmstad, while Australian William Henzell topped the podium at the ITTF-Oceania Cup & Para Table Tennis Championships on home soil in Bendigo in April to seal his World Cup place.

The World Cup format features a preliminary stage where players seeded ninth to 20th will be drawn into three groups of four.

The top two in each pool will then progress to the second round, where they will join the first eight seeded players to form a knockout draw.



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