Star Indian paddlers such as Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal will be searching for continental titles at the Asian Table Tennis Championships, scheduled to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan from October 7 to 13.
Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has sent a ten-member team – five men and as many women – for seven events at this championships: men’s team, women’s team, men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.
The competition will kickstart with the team competition in the first three days, followed by the individual events, starting October 9.
Medal Chances
Top Indian singles players, Sreeja Akula and Manika Batra will try to continue their good form this year and seek their first-ever medals at the Asian Championships. However, they will face stiff competition from Chinese, Japanese, and Korean paddlers.
Meanwhile, the Indian men’s doubles pairings of Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar, and G Sathiyan and Harmaeet Desai will seek podium finishes after missing out on the titles last year.
India’s real medal chances, however, lie in the men’s and women’s categories. Indian men’s team are the two-time bronze medalists.
Seeded fourth in the tournament, the Indian men’s team will be one of the favourites to win a medal while the Indian women’s team have been seeded seventh.
This will be the first time India will compete at a team event after their historic runs at the Paris Olympics and will be sighting to repeat that performance and win a couple of medals.
Squad
Men’s Team: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah
Women’s Team: Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ahyika Mukherjee, Diya Parag Chitale
Schedule
October 7
10:30 AM IST – Men’s team group stage
12:30 PM IST – Women’s Team group stage
October 8
10:30 AM IST – Men’s team quarterfinals
12:30 PM IST – Women’s Team Quarterfinals
October 9
10:30 AM IST – Women’s team semifinals
2:30 PM IST – Women’s doubles round-1
5:00 PM IST – Mixed doubles and men’s doubles knockout stage
7:30 PM IST – Women’s Team final
October 10
10:30 AM IST – Men’s team semifinals
3:00 PM IST – Mixed doubles third round
3:30 PM IST – Women’s Singles first round
5:30 PM IST – Mixed doubles quarterfinal
7:30 PM IST – Men’s Team final
October 11
10:30 AM IST – Men’s and women’s doubles second round
12:01 PM IST – Men’s Singles first round
2:30 PM IST – Men’s and women’s doubles third round
4:30 PM IST – Men’s and women’s singles second round
9:00 PM IST – Mixed doubles semifinal
10:00 PM IST – Women’s singles third round
October 12
10:30 AM IST – Men’s singles third round
11:50 AM IST – Men’s and women’s doubles quarterfinals
2:30 PM IST – Women’s and men’s singles (Round 4 to quarterfinal)
7:10 PM IST – Men’s doubles and women’s singles semifinals
9:00 PM IST – Mixed Doubles final
9:55 PM IST – Men’s doubles final
October 13
10:30 AM IST – Men’s singles and women’s doubles semifinals
3:30 PM IST – Women’s Singles final
4:30 PM IST – Women’s doubles final
5:30 PM IST – Men’s singles final
Live streaming
The live streaming of all the matches at the Asian Table Tennis Championships will be available on the ATTU Live YouTube channel from the first day of the competition.