Taking place just 300 kilometres from Nanjing, which hosted the latest edition of the Youth Olympic Games, the competition will star 38 players who also competed at those Games, with five of the six Youth Olympic singles medallists among the 192 players battling again for one of the top prizes in junior table tennis.

Only China's Youth Olympic gold medallist Fan Zhendong is missing from a stellar line-up, which includes the likes of Youth Olympic Games silver medallist Yuto Muramatsu of Japan and Lily Zhang of the United States.

Zhang made history in Nanjing when she became the first American athlete to secure an Olympic table tennis medal with bronze in the girl's singles

This will be the 18-year-old's last ever Junior World Championships before she departs for the senior ranks and she will be hoping to repeat the performance that brought her that historic medal in China earlier this year.

"Winning a medal in Nanjing was my goal and my dream, and achieving it has given me a lot of confidence and allowed me to set higher goals for myself in the future," she said.

"One of these goals is to win a medal in both the teams and singles events here, which I believe I have a good chance.

"I just need to fight, and have a bit of luck and hopefully I will be making more history, by winning the first World Junior Championships medal for a North American country."

Lily Zhang of the US made history at Nanjing 2014 when she became the first table tennis player from the United States to win an Olympic medal ©Getty Images



The American will face stern competition in the girl's competition with gold and silver medalists from Nanjing 2014, Liu Gaoyang of China and Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong, again favourites to line the podium.

Muramatsu will be among the favourites to take gold in the boy's competition as he continues preparations for the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Grand Finals in Bangkok, Thailand from December 11.

South Korea's Kim Minhyeok will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of 2013 boys singles champion Jang Woojin and become Korea's third world junior champion.

Brazilian Hugo Calderano will be pushing both Muramatsu and Kim to the limit in his quest to become the first world junior champion from Latin America, while China's chances will fall on up and coming protégée Yu Ziyang, who became the youngest ever winner of an ITTF World Tour men's singles title when he beat world number eight Jun Mizutani of Japan at the Japan Open in June.

The competition begins at Shanghai's Minhang Gymnasium today, with action continuing until Sunday (December 7).

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