Twelve top Chinese male table tennis players, including Zhang Jike, Ma Long, Xu Xin and Fan Zhendong, and 12 female top players, including Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen and Zhu Yuling, will gather in Shenzhen this weekend for the “Marvelous 12” competition, to win the opportunity to reach their final destination: Dusseldorf.

The Shenzhen tournament will decide the players who will be selected to represent China at the forthcoming Liebherr 2017 World Championships in Dusseldorf, Germany. They will compete in a tournament based on the round robin formula, the winner gaining selection, the remaining players then competing in groups, and from those groups the remaining places will be decided.

Ma Long (L) and Zhang Jike

When Zhang won the Olympic gold medal in singles in London in 2012, he became the fourth male player in the history of table tennis to achieve a career Grand Slam. The first three are Jan-Ove Waldner (in 1992), Liu Guoliang (in 1999), and Kong Linghui (in 2000). After the first Grand Slam, Zhang continued to win in the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships (WTTC) and the World Cup 2014, which makes him the closest player to achieving a second career Grand Slam. As of December 2016, he is one of the two male players who hold five (the most) major titles in table tennis history.

Ma won a record total of five straight International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour tournaments in a row, including a streak of 35 sets. After a clean sweep victory in the men’s singles at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Ma became the fifth player to complete a career Grand Slam. Additionally, he became the first male player (and second overall) in the world to have won every singles title in table tennis.

Ding Ning

Ding was the winner of women’s singles in the 2011 WTTC. At the 2015 WTTC, she won her second world title in women’s singles by defeating her compatriot Liu Shiwen 4-3 in the final. She won the women’s table tennis singles gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio where she beat compatriot Li Xiaoxia in the women’s singles final.

Liu Shiwen

Liu is a four-time World Cup, three-time World Tour Grand Finals and four-time Asian Cup champion.

Zhu Yuling

Zhu is the two-time winner of the World Junior Table Tennis Championships in girl’s singles and semi-finalist at the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships. She was a reserve player at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

Time: March 3-7, 7 p.m.; March 4-7 also at 1 p.m.; March 9, 1 p.m., 7 p.m.; March 10, 6:30 p.m. (final)

Tickets: 80-680 yuan

Booking: 400-185-8666

Venue: Shenzhen Stadium, Sungang Road West, Futian District (福田区笋岗西路深圳体育场)

Metro: Line 3, Tongxinling Station (通新岭站), Exit C