Don't blame China, says ITTF president

Despite China's dominance at major international events, table tennis' governing body remains positive about the game's ability to maintain its global popularity.

When Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany and Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa walked into the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships' pre-event media conference on Saturday they were the only two international representatives; outnumbered by four high-ranking Chinese paddlers, reflecting the minor global presence against China's supremacy in the sport.

As the biennial individual championships raised its curtain in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, on Sunday, the long-debated question of how much China's dominance has affected interest in the game in the rest of the world was raised again.