Dimitrij Ovtcharov will start as number one seed as he seeks to defend his men's singles title ©Getty Images

Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Elizabeta Samara will be seeking to successfully defend their continental singles crowns at the European Table Tennis Championships which open at Tüskecsarnok Hall in Budapest tomorrow.

A total of 132 male and 112 female players from 43 countries are expected to take part in the six-day event, which will return to the Hungarian capital for the first time since 1982.

The Championships are seen as a major opportunity for the city to showcase itself as it bids for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Ovtcharov will be looking to follow fellow German Timo Boll and claim three successive men's singles titles after also triumphing in 2014 and 2015.

Fourth-seed Boll, who returned from a post-Rio 2016 break to compete in the Champions League last week, will be looking to roll back the years and claim a seventh singles title.

Vladimir Samsonov will seek to avenge his 2015 final defeat to Dimitrij Ovtcharov ©Getty Images
Vladimir Samsonov will seek to avenge his 2015 final defeat to Dimitrij Ovtcharov ©Getty Images

Belarus veteran Vladimir Samsonov could mount the major challenge to the German duo as the second seed seeks to improve upon defeat in the final last year.

The 40-year-old, who last won the European singles title in 2005, took revenge on his Fakel Gazprom Orenburg club team-mate Ovtcharov by beating him in the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games en-route to a fourth place finish.

Portuguese duo Marcos Freitas and Tiago Apolonia are seeded third and fifth, while French rising star Simon Gauzy will start sixth.

Other contenders include Sweden's Kristian Karlsson, the fourth-place finisher at the World Cup in Saarbrücken earlier this month, and England's World Championships bronze medal winning duo Liam Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall.

Romania's Samara claimed a shock 4-3 victory over Dutch opponent Li Jie last year and will start her title defence as seventh seed.

Elizabeta Samara will also be looking to repeat the women's singles victory she achieved in 2015 ©ITTF
Elizabeta Samara will also be looking to repeat the women's singles victory she achieved in 2015 ©ITTF

Germany will look to claim a golden double as 2013 bronze medallist Han Ying begins as top seed, followed by her Olympic silver medal winning team-mates Petrissa Solja and Shan Xiaona.

Chinese-born players dominate the seedings, with 2005 champion Liu Jia of Austria seeded fourth and Turkey's Hu Melek sixth.

Georgina Pota will lead the host nation challenge as eighth seed.

Austria's Stefan Fegerl and Portugal's Joao Monteiro will seek to defend their men's doubles crown, while Turkish-Spanish partnership Hu and Shen Yanfei will aim to do likewise in the women's doubles.

Team competitions will not take place, although the Championships will feature mixed doubles for the first time since 2007.