With several qualification tournaments cancelled, the ITTF has decided to use its world rankings to determine which players can take part in the sport’s showpiece event in Houston in November.

The "3+1+1 rule" entitles National Federations to a potential five representatives in each category at the tournament. 

All will be permitted a maximum of three players, but an extra place is available for those who have a player within the top 100, and a further place for those with a player in the top 20.

National Federations must nominate representatives by August 23, but will be able to replace an allocated player with another from the top 256 in the world rankings.

The full list of who has secured a place at the World Championships will be announced in September.

The tournament format will also be revamped and expanded in 2021, with both the men’s and women’s singles competitions to include 128 players, while 64 pairs are to take part in each of the men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

All events will run as a straight knockout competition.

The World Table Tennis Championships will run from November 23 to 29 in Houston, the most populated city in Texas in the United States.

Tickets for fans will go on sale in August.

The competition first took place in London in 1926, but this will be the first time it has been held on the American continent. 

Last year's World Team Table Tennis Championships - due to be contested in Busan in South Korea - fell victim to the pandemic, eventually being cancelled after multiple postponements.

Last time the World Championships took place in 2019, players from China won all five singles and doubles titles in Hungarian capital Budapest.

The World Table Tennis Championships and World Table Tennis Team Championships run in alternate years.

An ITTF Annual General Meeting and Presidential election is due to take place in Houston at the same time as the World Championships.