The three-day tournament, which was held at the same venue of the Mario Morales Coliseum last year, will involve the highest quality field the event has witnessed since the inaugural edition held in San José, Costa Rica in 2017.

Last year Calderano and Diaz booked Tokyo 2020 Olympic places as they won the singles titles at the Pan American Games in Lima.

Calderano is listed at number seven on the men’s world rankings, and Diaz is ranked 20^th in the women’s list.

Their major opponents in Guaynabo are both from the United States - Kanak Jha in the men’s singles and Lily Zhang in the women’s event.

Jha, the second seed, won bronze in this event in 2018 and was beaten in last year’s final by Calderano in five games.

At last year’s ITTF Men’s World Cup the Brazilian needed the full seven games to earn victory after falling behind at 2-0 and 3-1.

Jha was world ranked 51 last year; this year he is at 25 in the rankings.

Zhang is second seed in the women’s event.

She won the inaugural version of this event in 2017 but lost in last year’s quarter-finals to the eventual runner-up, Canada’s Zhang Mo.

However, in September Zhang won the women’s singles title at the 2019 ITTF Pan American Championships in Asuncion and then reached the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup the following month.

In December, she was named “Breakthrough Athlete of the Year” at the ITTF Star Awards gala, before securing the women’s singles title at the United States Open in Fort Worth.

In the course of the last year Zhang has risen from 95 to 28 in the women’s world rankings.

Also likely to challenge in the women’s event are Zhang’s US colleague Wu Yue and Canada’s Mo, who have both secured medals in all three previous editions of the tournament.