Achanta has seven Commonwealth golds, winning the men's singles at this year's Games in Birmingham 16 years after winning it for the first time in Melbourne, and contributing to India's victories in the men's team and mixed doubles.

China's Liu Shiwen, women's world champion in 2019 and five-time individual World Cup winner was also voted onto the Commission from Asia.

The player who gained the highest proportion of votes in the online election, held from November 7 to 13, was Romania’s 35-year-old Elizabeta Samara, who won the European title in 2015 and earned European Games silver in 2019.

Players with the highest votes from the Americas, Africa and Oceania were, respectively, Daniely Rios of Puerto Rico, Egypt’s Omar Assar and Melissa Tapper of Australia.

Others voted in were Stefan Fegerl of Austria, Jon Persson of Sweden, Para-athlete wheelchair representative Ingela Lundback of Sweden and Para-athlete standing representative Kelly Van Zon of The Netherlands.

All ten players selected from the 25 candidates will serve a four-year term.

The number of voters among athletes increased by 18 per cent compared with the election held in 2018, while participation of Para athletes almost tripled.

Petra Sörling, ITTF President, said: "I would like to thank all the candidates and congratulate the ten elected athletes.

"The Executive Committee and I are looking forward to working closely with them.

"The Athletes Commission is crucial as it links the athletes and the ITTF, ensuring the athletes’ priorities and viewpoints are communicated and represented.

"I am also delighted by the large increase in the number of votes; our athletes are more and more engaged in the future direction of the sport of table tennis."

Steve Dainton, ITTF group chief executive, added: "The whole management team looks forward to working with the new members of the Athlete Commission.

"We will support them more than ever as they help us understand their aspirations, hopes, and dreams for table tennis.

"Their ideas and insights will be invaluable for our mission to develop our sport."

All members of the Athletes Commission will be invited to the forthcoming ITTF Summit in December in Amman, Jordan.

At the Summit the Commission, along with IOC Athletes’ Commission member Ryu Seung-Min, will elect two chairs to sit on the ITTF Executive Committee.

For the first time the two chairs will be one man and one woman to ensure gender parity.