The WTT Star Contender, to be held from March 25 to 30 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai, will feature a host of Indian table tennis stars, including Sharath Kamal.
Sharath, India’s most decorated paddler, is set to retire in front of his home crowd.
Indian paddlers Sreeja Akula and Manika Batra, both ranked inside the Top 30, as well as Ayhika Mukherjee and Yashaswini Ghorpade will compete in women’s singles, where World No. 5 Hina Hayata of Japan will be the top seed.
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The men’s singles, led by World No. 4 Tomokazu Harimoto and World No. 6 Hugo Calderano of Brazil, will see Sharath, Manav Thakkar, G. Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai representing India.
Thakkar and Manush Shah will be the top seeds in men’s doubles, while Asian Games bronze medallists Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee will carry the home hopes in women’s doubles.
China, one of the powerhouses in the sport, will have no representative at the event. “The Chinese players are not here due to visa issues. It takes a longer time for their visas to be processed. I guess that’s the same when we go to China too. But I think this will also give the Indians a good chance to go deeper into the tournament,” said Sharath.
