Manika Batra, Sharath Kamal to spearhead India's TT contingent for Asian Games, Asian Championships

A 10-member team has been named.

The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has announced a 10-member squad for the upcoming Asian Games, scheduled to be held from September 23 to August 06 in Hangzhou, China. The squad consists of five men and five women paddlers led by Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra respectively. The squad will be heading for the Asian Championships (September 03 to 10) to be held in South Korea first, then after a span of two weeks to Hangzhou for the Continental Games.

At Asian Games, only two entries per gender are allowed to participate in the singles section. The TTFI, taking this into consideration, have chosen Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran for men's singles while Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula will take part in the women's singles respectively. On the contrary, there are no restrictions in the number of participations in singles at the Asian Championships, so all the players entered can take part in the singles section.

In the doubles, Sathiyan will combine with Sarath Kamal and Manika Batra in men's doubles and mixed doubles, however Manika and Sharath Kamal have restrained themselves from participating in the women's doubles and mixed doubles respectively.

Recent Performances

The recent performances of Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran have been concerning. The latter has dropped from top 30 last year to outside the top 80 in the latest WTT singles rankings. In particular, Sathiyan has not been able to progress to the main draw of the previous two tournaments — WTT Contender Zagreb and WTT Star Contender Ljubljana. On the other hand, his compatriot Harmeet Desai has slowly moved up the ladder and is the current number two Indian in the singles department at WR 65. He defeated three top 30 players in the recently concluded WTT African leg helping him gain sizeable ranking points.

In the women's section, Manika Batra has remained consistent, while the doubles section has produced some remarkable results. Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee claimed the top spot at WTT Contender Tunis in women's doubles while Diya Chitale and Sreeja Akula reached the semi-finals at WTT Contender Zagreb. Two women's singles paddlers (Manika and Sreeja) are currently ranked inside top 100 and the likes of Sutirtha Mukherjee to name a few are taking good strides forward in the singles department.

India's Table Tennis Squad for Asian Games, Asian Championships

Men - Achanta Sarath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, Manav Vikas Thakkar, and Utpalbhai Shah.

Reserves - Snehit Suravajjula and Sanil Shetty

Women - Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, and Diya Chitale.

Reserves - Archana Kamath and Reeth Tennison

Men Doubles - Sarath Kamal/Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manav Thakkar/Utpal Shah

Women Doubles - Sutirtha Mukherjee/Ayhika Mukherjee and Sreeja Akula/Diya Chitale

Mixed doubles - Sathiyan Gnanasekaran/Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula/Harmeet Desai