The qualifications process for table tennis began at the end of the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships. The top 28 players, and the highest-ranked players in the world after the Championships, were directly qualified into their events at the Olympics, with a limit of two athletes per country. Places were also awarded by achievements in six continental tournaments between June 2011 and April 2012, and a May 2012 international tournament awarded a place in the Olympics to the two highest-ranked players of each gender. A final quota is allocated by invitation of the International Table Tennis Federation. Ni Xialian was forty-fourth in the world after the 2011 World Championships, but was later awarded a place.