Panchkula: Harmeet Desai, the highest-ranked Indian in the world at No. 75, has got the top slot in the men's singles seeding of the 85th UTT Senior Nationals and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships, the knockout rounds of which begin at the Tau Devi Lal Indoor Stadium tomorrow.
Manav Thakkar is ranked behind him at No. 88 and is seeded second for the championships. Incidentally, he is the highest-ranked Indian with 360 points and occupies the No. 1 position out of his best four outings considered for national ranking. Harmeet is just behind him on the list with 330 points.
Sathiyan (89) and A. Sharath Kamal (94) follow the two in the world rankings and are seeded third and fourth, respectively. Sharath, who is No. 5 in the national ranking and behind Manush Shah, is ahead of the RBI paddler in world rankings and within the 100 brackets. As for the remaining 12 positions in the men's section, from 5 to 8 and 9 to 16 were drawn as per the national ranking of the individuals.
Manika Batra, who would be making her second appearance in the domestic events this year, gets the top billing and is seeded No. 1 among the women, having held on to her world rankings. She is at No. 35 while defending champion Sreeja Akula and the second-best Indian in the 100 brackets is at No. 88, seeded No.2. The consistency of their international performance has set them apart from the rest of Indian women’s players.
But Manika’s entry in the singles raised several eyebrows, as it came after the closing date and the group draw. The competition department took a call on her inclusion after her employer, the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), requested TTFI through a mail. According to PSPB officials, she had sent in the entry, but because of an oversight, the officials missed it. They realised their mistake when Manika called them and they requested the competition authorities as a one-time exception.
“We knew it (entry) was late. But the technical committee of the TTFI thought it proper to include Manika, keeping her international stature in mind,” said competition manager N. Ganeshan. “It was a collective decision of the committee members,” he added.
If one goes by her Indian ranking, she is at No. 20 with 70 points, which includes the 40 she collected from her maiden appearance in the Institutional Championships held at Vizag in August. The other 30 points she got were from the Jammu Nationals in early March. She, however, skipped all the five National Ranking tournaments in between.
Players were divided into 112 (men) and 101 (women) groups, respectively, because of the overwhelming number of entries in the singles. One qualifier from each group has joined the 16 male and nine women seeds in the main draw—the ninth-seeded position going to Poymantee Baisya. She was the eighth until the entry of Manika Batra was allowed.
