PANAJI: UTT 82nd Senior National Table Tennis Championships to be held from February 15 to 23, at Punchkula-Haryana; is set to be a high-stake star-studded affair.
The attraction of the women’s event will undoubtedly be Manika Batra. Manika has been preparing for the championships at Pune with her coach and sparring partner from Belarus. “I feel really in good shape and look forward to the Nationals,” she said.
Sutirtha Mukherjee, the reigning champion from Haryana, and her predecessor Archana Girish Kamath, who is turning out for Karnataka as a senior pro for the first time, will be in the race for the coveted title and the top prize of Rs 1.65 lakh.
Among the novelties, is a singles-only event in a bio-secure environment; 16, instead of the usual eight, women players will be seeded directly into the main draw; there will be no team championships or doubles events and, above all, it will be the ladies’ first, who will open the proceedings.
The Nationals will provide the players with a chance for introspection, prepare mentally for the crucial WTT Contenders in Doha, and more importantly, the Tokyo qualification events soon after. Former national champions K. Shamini and Madhurika Patkar along with other wildcards like Anusha Kutumbale, Harshavardhni and Swastika Ghosh will pose a challenge for the title contenders. The women’s singles final is on February 18 and, a day after, the men singles will resume.
GOA (squad): Dheeraj Rai, Manish Yadav, Reagan Pinto, Diljeet Velingkar, Vedant Kulkarni, Aditi Chodankar and Kefira Rodrigues. Team Manager: Meenakshi Chodankar.
