The ITTF World Junior Championships are due to get underway at the Grand Arena in Cape Town tomorrow ©ITTF

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Junior Championships are set to get underway in the South African city of Cape Town tomorrow with a host of already established stars in action.

The competition is due to start with team events in both the boys' and girls' divisions, which will then be followed by the singles tournaments which are comprised of 96 boys and girls in the under-18 age category.

The top 14 ranked male and female players automatically qualified while each of the other qualifying countries were able to enter a maximum of four players in both competitions.

The top 14 were based on the ITTF rankings as of September 2016, in which players have accumulated ranking points through their participation in ITTF sanctioned circuit competitions throughout the season.

A total of 48 pairs will compete in the boys' and girls' doubles events as well as 96 pairs in the mixed doubles.

Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto is the number one seed in the boys' singles tournament.

At the Polish Open in October 2015 he became the youngest player ever to progress to the first round of an ITTF World Tour men’s singles event.

Miu Hirano is the top seed in the women's singles competition in Cape Town ©Getty Images
Miu Hirano is the top seed in the women's singles competition in Cape Town ©Getty Images

In June 2016, still 10 days before his 13th birthday, he added another record when he defeated compatriot Kohei Sambe in the final of the under-21 men’s singles event at the Japan Open to become the youngest player ever to win such a title.

Second seed, South Korea's Cho Seungmin, was successful in the under-21 competition of this year's Belarus Open while third seed, seventeen-year-old Yuto Kizukuri of Japan, reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open earlier this year.

Headlining the women's singles competition is Miu Hirano of Japan.

Earlier this year the 16-year-old defeated Chinese Taipei's Cheng I-Ching in straight games to become the youngest women's World Cup champion in Philadelphia in the United States.

Fellow Japanese player Mima Ito is seeded second and has also enjoyed a successful year.

After winning bronze in the team event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Ito also breezed to the women’s title at the Austrian Open after she thrashed her compatriot Yui Hamamoto in straight games.

Minnie Soo Wai Yam of Hong Kong will also be in action.

The fifth seed won the junior girls’ singles title at the 2016 Hungarian Junior and Cadet Open in Szombathely earlier this month.