China's top paddlers gathered Saturday in Zhucheng, East China's Shandong province to contest for tickets to this year's world table tennis championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Among the 32 national team players are Olympic champion Ma Lin, triple world championship winner Wang Liqin and Wang Hao. Four spots are available for the men's players while only one for the women's at the six-day second-phase trial.

Based on their recent performances, world No. 3 Wang Hao and rising star Zhang Jike, who defeated world No. 1 Timo Boll twice this week, are considered the hot favorites to progress through the men's trial.

Ma Lin and Wang Liqin are in danger of missing the cut for the world championship roster due to poor results in the previous round of the domestic trial.

On the women's side, Liu Shiwen, Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia are the main contenders after world No. 1 Guo Yan and No. 7 Ding Ning have already earned their berths.

The world table tennis championships for individual events will be staged in Rotterdam from May 8 to 15.

Editor: Li Jing

Source: Xinhua