Panaji (Goa)[India], February 8 (ANI): Table Tennis (TT) legend and reigning Olympic champion Ma Long and present ladies’s Olympic champion Chen Meng, each from China, might be amongst a galaxy of the world’s prime stars within the sport, to descend in India for the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Goa, scheduled from February 27 to March 5. The event is to be performed on the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium.
The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), the father or mother physique of the game in India, may also be the supporting companion of the event. The WTT Star Contender Goa is the best degree of TT ever to be witnessed in India the place the most important world superstars of the game might be seen in motion.
The 34-year-old Ma, broadly considered the very best to have ever performed the sport, is a two-time Olympic champion and also will have his countryman and rival Fan Zhendong, the present world champion and world primary, for the corporate within the Men’s singles, the place Indian TT legend Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnansekaran may also be placing up a problem. Among different main lights of the lads’s sport, world quantity 4 Tomakazu Harimoto of Japan and world quantity six Truls Moregard of Sweden, world quantity eight Lin Yun-Ju from Chinese Taipei and world quantity 9 Darko Jorgic from Slovenia may also be seen in motion.
In the ladies’s part, in addition to Chen, her countrywoman and world primary Sun Yingsha has additionally confirmed participation together with world quantity 5 Hina Hayata of Japan, World quantity eight Kasumi Ishikawa from Japan, World quantity 9 Doo Hoi Kem from Hong Kong, China and world quantity 10 Ying Han from Germany. Also making an attempt to present them a run for his or her cash on dwelling turf might be India’s primary and world quantity 34, Manika Batra.
World Table Tennis (WTT) has not too long ago launched the entry listing for the Men’s singles and Women’s singles participation within the event.
Expressing her views on the WTT Star Contender Goa, Manika Batra mentioned, “Playing my first World Table Tennis event in Goa is going to be a great experience. It is always a great honour to play in front of a home crowd, and I can’t wait to hear them cheering us all on. We hope to make them proud.”Leading the cost within the males’s singles for India might be world-ranked 41 Sathiyan, who received the lads’s singles bronze within the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham final yr and was additionally part of India’s gold medal-winning males’s group occasion, together with a silver within the males’s doubles occasion class.
“I am excited to be playing my first WTT Series event in India. The field is incredibly strong, so all the matches are going to be tough. I hope as many fans as possible will come and support us in Goa,” mentioned Sathiyan on the discharge of the listing.
Accompanying Sathiyan would be the legendary and evergreen Sharath Kamal Achanta. Sharath, a gold medallist within the males’s singles, blended doubles and males’s group occasions on the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 Birmingham and at the moment ranked 47 on the planet, will add extra stealth and energy to the Indian problem.
Some different Indian names like Sreeja Akula who’s the reigning nationwide ladies’s singles and doubles champion might be competing within the qualifiers with different Indian paddlers viz; Reeth Teenison, Diya Chitale, Swastika Ghosh, Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty and plenty of extra, will attempt to seize a spot in the primary draw of the competitors.
Along with the worldwide and Indian superstars, the event may also see many prime worldwide gamers competing for the primary time in India. Some of the highest names embody Yukiya Uda, 2018 Asian Games bronze medalist, Lee San-Su and CWG 2022 Silver medalist Liam Pitchford within the males’s single occasion. While Jeon Jihee, Liu Weishan, Shin Yubin and the 2022 Tokyo Olympics Silver medalist within the ladies’s group occasion, Miu Hirano, might be competing within the ladies’s single draw. (ANI)