Timo Boll will seek home glory in the ITTF German Open ©Getty Images

Home rivals Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Timo Boll are the respective first and second seeds at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) German Open due to get fully underway in Bremen tomorrow.

The 36-year-old Boll will become the oldest ever world number one after the latest ITTF rankings were announced at the beginning of this month, and if the seedings work out he will meet his younger compatriot, who he will replace at the top, in the final.

Should that happen, the older man will seek to replicate his victory in last month's ITTF Europe Top 16 Cup final which frustrated Ovtcharov's ambition of winning a fourth consecutive title.

The competition is the third stop on this year's ITTF World Tour Platinum following events in Hungary and Qatar. 

Dimitrij Ovtcharov is seeded to reach the ITTF German Open final against fellow home player and world number one Timo Boll in Bremen ©Getty Images
Dimitrij Ovtcharov is seeded to reach the ITTF German Open final against fellow home player and world number one Timo Boll in Bremen ©Getty Images

Lurking in the middle of the draw at the ÖVB Arena, however, is the 21-year-old Brazilian Hugo Calderano who delivered a shock defeat to Boll in the first round of the Qatar Open earlier this month and went on to reach the final before losing to China's world number two Fan Zhendong.

While Fan is not playing the German Open, the Chinese flag will be carried by two immensely strong players in Xu Xin and Olympic and world champion Ma Long.

Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa, who reached the semi-final of the Qatar Open, is top seeded in the women's singles along with Feng Tianwei, Singapore's naturalised Chinese player who earned an Olympic singles bronze medal at London 2012.