New Delhi, April 7: The 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships, to be held at Shillong in Meghalaya from April 18, will see participation of 38 men and 35 women teams. The draws for the competition were conducted on Thursday at the national capital.
307 men and 243 women will be competing in the championships. The top 16 in the men’s section and eight in women’s section have been given direct entry into the main draw. But for seeding, the top-50 world ranking was fixed as the benchmark. Only three players—A. Sharath Kamal (No. 38), G. Sathiyan (39) and Manika Batra(48)—met the criteria and have been seeded No. 1 and 2 (men) and No. 1 (women) accordingly.
Dia Chitale has been seeded at the No. 2 spot in the seeding list, behind Reeth Rishya and Sreeja Akula. All the three players are jointly second in national ranking points (225).
Mentionably, this is the first time that the draws were held electronically for the competitions. Draws were done for team championships, singles, and doubles events. Also, with 73 teams participating in the competition, it is the largest ever for the championships.
The Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) and the Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) were the title winners of the 2019 edition.
Justice Mukul Mudgal (Retd) held the draws using a new software through a click of the mouse button at his residence in the presence of chairperson Justice Gita Mittal (Retd), S.D. Mudgil—the members of the Committee of Administrators (CoA)—chief national coach Manjit Singh Dua, competition manager N. Ganeshan, chief referee A.S. Kler and other officials of the Table Tennis Federation of India. Chetan Mittal, the third member of CoA, joined the meeting from Chandigarh. Top players of the country, who will be competing in the Nationals, also joined the live draw ceremony.
The entries in men’s and women’s doubles have been limited to two per team, per gender for states and the institutions one each, as has been the practice. However, in mixed doubles, four and two pairs, respectively, have been allowed. The paired events will be conducted on a knockout basis.
Additionally, the entire draw, including singles groupings, men’s, women’s and mixed doubles, will be uploaded on the TTFI website.
