The 16 best men and 16 best women from the 20 Tour events this year will be battling it out at the Sports Authority of Thailand Indoor Stadium for the top honour of champion and a share of the $1,000,000 (£640,000/€800,000) prize fund.

London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany is an unusual favourite in the men's singles, despite having never won a match at the World Tour Grand final in six attempts.

"I am really determined to break by unlucky run at the World Tour Grand Finals and win my first match," he said.

"My opponent Yuto Muramatsu is a very strong opponent and is in good form, as he won silver at last week's World Junior Championships, so I need to be in top form to beat him.

"As he is a defender, at least the crowd will get a good match."

Feng Tianwei is the favourite to take the women's singles crown in Bangkok ©Getty Images


Belarusian Samsonov, who first played in the World Tour Grand Finals back in 1996, will be another to challenge Ovtcharov for the title, as well as Japan's Jun Mizutani.

Meanwhile, Singapore's 2010 champion Tianwei, who won three World Tour events this year, is favourite in the women's tournament.

She will have to fend off strong competition from Japan's world number six Kasumi Ishikawa and world number 10 Ai Fukuhara.

Elsewhere, number one seeds Mima Ito and Miu Hirano of Japan will be the ones to beat in the women's doubles after they overcame some of the world's best teams this year to become the youngest ever winners of an ITTF World Tour event when they secured victory at the German and Polish Opens.

The competition will continue in Bangkok until Sunday (December 14).

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