Olympic champions, Ma Long and Chen Meng (China), are among the world’s top stars to be seen in action in the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Goa, scheduled from February 27-March 05.
Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra will spearhead Indian challenge in this very tough field,
The WTT Star Contender Goa to be played at the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor stadium is being hosted by Stupa Analytics, also the data analytics partners, as well as the Government of Goa.
The 34-year-old Ma, widely regarded as the best to have ever played the game, is a two-time Olympic champion and will also have his countryman and rival Fan Zhendong, the current world champion and world number one, for company in the Men’s singles,
Among other leading lights of the game, world number four Tomakazu Harimoto (Japan) number six Truls Moregard (Sweden), number eight Lin Yun-Ju (Chinese Taipei) and number nine Darko Jorgic (Slovenia) have also confirmed their participation .
In the women’s section, besides Chen, her countrywoman and world number one Sun Yingsha along with number five Hina Hayata , number eight Kasumi Ishikawa (Japan), ld number nine Doo Hoi Kem (Hong Kong, China) and number 10 Ying Han ( Germany.) will be fighting for gthe top honours. Also trying to give them a run for their money on home turf will be the India number one and world number 34, Manika Batra.
World Table Tennis (WTT) have recently released the entry list for the Men’s singles and Women’s singles participations for the tournament.
Along with the global and Indian superstars, the tournament will also see many top international players competing for the first time in India. Some of the top names include Yukiya Uda, 2018 Asian Games bronze medalist, Lee San-Su and CWG 2022 Silver medalist Liam Pitchford in the men’s single event.
While Jeon Jihee, Liu Weishan, Shin Yubin and 2022 Tokyo Olympics Silver medalist in women’s team event, Miu Hirano, will be competing in the women’s single draw.
“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,” said Manika Batra
Leading the charge in the men’s singles for the hosts will be world ranked 41 Sathiyan, who won the men’s singles bronze in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year and was also a part of gold medal winning team event, along with a silver in the doubles event category.
“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,” said Sathiyan on the release of the list.
Accompanying Sathiyan will be Sharth Kamal Achanta,, a gold medallist in the singles, mixed doubles and team events at the CWG and currently ranked 47 in the world, will add more stealth and power to the Indian challenge.
Some other Indian names like Sreeja Akula who is the reigning national women’s singles and doubles champion, will be competing in the qualifiers with other paddlers viz; Reeth Teenison, Diya Chitale, Swastika Ghosh, Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty and many more, will try and grab a spot in the main draw of the competition.