Brazilian player looks forward to Olympic place from Suzhou

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games are just over a year away and many athletes in Suzhou have in the very forefront of their mind the ranking points they need to earn to lock in a spot on their NOC's team in Brazil.

As hosts, the Brazilian team are guaranteed one singles place per gender regardless of ranking, but for Brazilian Thiago Monteiro, he still should work harder for the Olympics, and the prospect of playing in front of a home crowd is all the motivation he needs.

"People in Brazil they are crazy about sport, they love it a lot," he said on Tuesday.

"We had the experience at the Pan American Games in 2007 and the arena was always full and I think and I hope that it will be full again," added Monteiro, who sailed through the qualifying tournament to make the main draw of the table tennis worlds at Suzhou.

Monteiro said that competition is fierce within a Brazilian men's squad that has four good players.

"Everyone is in good shape," said Monteiro. "There is big competition between us, but in a good way. So it is very positive, even though you know it will be very tough to win a medal, we have never been so positive."

When asked about whether funding has improved for the Brazilian team as a result of being hosts, the 33-year-old Monteiro said it's getting better.

"It is really much better, really completely different to what I had as a junior until my mid-20s. So the players cannot complain because we have much more support than before," he said.

"I know how it was. We were mostly paying everything from our own pocket before. But slowly things have started to get better."

"Until 2016 we have good conditions, after that I don't know how it will be. But this is (a concern) for the younger players." Endit