The world’s best table tennis players are coming to London — and we’re offering you the chance to win tickets to watch!

Top table tennis stars, including the Chinese and Japanese men’s teams, will take to the floor at the Copper Box Arena this month to showcase their skills and battle it out for the gold medal at the 2018 ITTF Team World Cup.

England’s men have qualified by rights for the event by virtue of their bronze medal at the World Championships in 2016, while the women’s team will have a host-nation place.

England’s number one, Paul Drinkhall, who was part of the 2016 World Championship bronze medal-winning squad, said: “This will be an exciting event for English and British table tennis as a whole and it’s great to be hosting it when we will be a part of it because of our World Championships medal.

“It’s an amazing venue, iconic if you like, and it will be great to visit the Olympic Park. Hopefully we can put in some good performances and challenge the best in the world and make some more memories.”

A total of 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams will be competing.

The rest of the field will comprise the six continental champions and the other top finishers at the 2016 World Championships.

This includes the current ranked world number one Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany), Olympic and World Champion Ma Long (China), and record-breaking 14-year-old rising star Harimoto Tomokazu (Japan).

The event, which is the first major table tennis tournament event to be held in London since 1954, takes place from February 22

To win one of three sets of family tickets to the semi-finals on February 24, please email marketing@tabletennisengland.co.uk with your name by 5pm on February 19.

Any entries should include the ‘Hackney Gazette’ name in the subject line of the email.

To find out more about the 2018 ITTF Team World Cup, visit ittf.com/tournament/2873/2018/ittf-team-world-cup/.