Olympic champions missing from ITTF China Open

World No. 3 Xu Xin was seeded on top here while the whole squad of China's Olympic gold-winning team is missing from the ITTF ProTour China Open.

As the most awarded World Tour stop, the 330,000 U.S. dollars event features a strong lineup, although the newly crowned London Olympic champions Zhang Jike, Wang Hao, Ma Long, Li Xiaoxia, Ding Ning and Guo Yue have all been visiting Hong Kong.

Xu Xin, 22, who's a P-card substitute for the Chinese men's table tennis team at the 2012 Olympic Games concluded this month, leads the seeding of the men's singles, while former Olympic gold medalist Ma Lin, also in supporting roles in London, was the second seed.

European champion Timo Boll, London's bronze medalist for the men's team event, was drawn into the upper half together with Xu as the third seed and world No. 7.

Boll's younger teammate, world No. 9 Dimitrij Ovtcharov, the men's singles bronze medalist in London, is the fifth seed here and could meet Xu at quarterfinals if they win both their matches in previous rounds.

Also in the upper half is Hao Shuai, a former key player of the Chinese men's squad, Belarus veteran Vladimir Samsonov, Austrian chopper Chen Weixing and Japanese youngster Kenta Matsudaira.

In the other half, the second seed Ma Lin's biggest challenges are from another Chinese duo, the 34-year-old three-time world champion Wang Liqin and Ma's Olympic men's doubles gold-winning partner Chen Qi.

On women's part, former World Cup winner Liu Shiwen, a substitute for the Chinese women's team in London, is seeded on top, while Singapore's Feng Tianwei, the Olympic bronze medalist of women's singles in London, is the second seed.

All the seeded players will start playing on Friday at the 22-26 China Open.

It has been the fourth China Open held in Suzhou in four straight years, as all men's and women's singles titles in the previous tournaments have been collected by Chinese paddlers.