CHENGDU, China, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The world's top table tennis players will clash in the provincial capital of Sichuan on Thursday to decide which playing style - penholds or handshakes - is better.

    The world top-ranked Chinese Ma Long will team up with fellow handshakers Wang Liqin and Timo Boll to battle against a team of penholders, formed by South Korean Ryu Seung Min and Chinese Ma Lin and Wang Hao.

    "I don't know which side will win the clash of two styles, but I can promise you a very exciting match," said China's head coach Liu Guoliang, who won the 1996 Olympic singles gold as a penholder.

    Ma Lin, double Olympic gold winner in 2008, said he will vindicate the superiority of the penholds style.

    "I take this match very seriously," said Ma. "I predict my team to laugh last."

    German Boll, ranked fourth in the world, didn't agree.

    "My team will win, and I will win, too," said the German star.

    Adham Sharara, president of the International Table Tennis Federation, told the Table Tennis World magazine on Monday that he favored the handshakes team to win the competition.

    Since table tennis was introduced to the Olympic program in 1988, seven penholders and five handshakers have made it to the men's singles finals, with penholders winning four out of six finals.

    The ticket sales from the match will be used to help earthquake victims in Sichuan, said organizer Chen Jing, the 1988 Olympic women's singles champion.

    Sichuan was rocked by a devastating earthquake on May 12, 2008,in which 68,000 people were killed.

    "When I watched the earthquake news on TV, my heart was broken," Ryu Seung Min recalled on Tuesday.

    Ryu, who used to play in a Sichuan club, donated 10,000 U.S. dollars to Sichuan after he heard the news.

    Ryu and the other five players will visit Beichuan and Mianyangon Wednesday, the two cities most hit by the 2008 earthquake.