The 29-year-old is the top seed for the four-day event, which is scheduled to begin tomorrow and take place at Astana’s "Daulet" Sports Complex.

He is just one match away from ending the reign of China’s Ma Long, who has been dominating the ITTF world rankings for 34 months consecutively.

Ovtcharov will have to avenge his 2017 World Championships defeat to Japan’s Koki Niwa to win his first-round match in Kazakhstan’s capital and become the new world number one from next month.

"It will be a life dream for me to be world number one," the newly-crowned ITTF Men’s World Cup champion said.

"It is almost sound unreal to see the possibility that my name would be on the top of the list.

"I have a fantastic year with so many victories at so many events, which gave me a lot of confidence.

"The draw seems to be tough as I lost to Koki at the World Championships and I will be well prepared for the match.

"I have met with him many times and I lost actually only that one encounter.

"I believe in my victories and strengths and I hope I can make it far the event, and this is right now my priority.

"I hope to make another final and the ranking comes with it."

A new ITTF world ranking system is due to come into effect from January 1, 2018.

It will aim to present a more accurate measure and realistic situation of the playing level, and to ensure that the world ranking better supports ITTF events.

World number two Fan Zhendong of China will also be vying to claim top honours at the World Tour Grand Finals.

Team-mate and arch-rival Ma, the reigning Olympic and world champion, will not be competing, however, having not contested enough World Tour events this year.

Having won three World Tour Platinum titles on this year’s ITTF World Tour, China’s Chen Meng heads the women’s seedings.

She is bidding for her first triumph at the event, but will have to fend off challenges from the likes of compatriot Zhu Yuling, the reigning world number one.

Up-and-coming stars of the Chinese team, such as two-time world junior champion Wang Manyu, are also expected to challenge.

Japanese stars Miu Hirano, Mima Ito and Kasumi Ishikawa are likely to be in contention as well.

The ITTF World Tour Grand Finals is the year-ending finale for the ITTF World Tour, which this year featured 12 events across the globe.

The Grand Finals will feature the top 16 male and female players, as well as the top eight men’s and women’s doubles pairs, from the dozen World Tour events.

A total of $1 million (£748,000/€850,000) is on offer in prize money.