Tom Jarvis heads to World Championships host nation Kazakhstan in his latest quest to pick up world ranking points.

The Kazakh capital Astana took the baton from London in May and will host the individual ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in 2027.

But first there is the WTT Star Contender Astana, with Jarvis seeded 15th in an entry list headed up by the last two European Men’s Singles champions, Alexis Lebrun of France and Germany’s Dang Qiu.

Jarvis (WR 46) is in top seed Lebrun’s quadrant of the draw and will face him in the last 16 if both athletes win their round of 32 matches.

The seeds have a bye through the round of 64, meaning Jarvis is guaranteed a minimum of 30 ranking points – but that will rise to 115 if he wins through to the round of 16.

His opponent in the last 32 will be either Yuta Tanaka (WR 92) of Japan or an as-yet-undecided qualifier – the qualifying rounds finish on Wednesday. The main draw begins on Thursday and Jarvis will be into the action on Friday.

Jarvis is joined in Astana by Wales’ Anna Hursey (WR 36), who is seeded 12th. She will face either Sayali Wani (WR 164) of India or Russian’s Arina Slautina (WR 173) in the round of 32.

Both Jarvis and Hursey will head further east after the Star Contender – both are playing the China Smash in Beijing, which starts on 1 October.