Top stars to miss North Zone Table Tennis

NEW DELHI - The North Zone National Ranking table tennis championships will be held at the Yamuna Sports Complex here Dec 19-23 without some of the country’s top players.

Commonwealth Games doubles Champion Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha are in South Korea competing in the International Table Tennis Federation Pro Tour Finals. Soumyadeep Roy and Anthony Amalraj have opted out of the tournament to meet their club commitments in Iran and Slovakia. Veteran Poulomi Ghatak will also miss the event as she is recovering from a knee injury.

The men’s top seed amid the missing stars will be Abhishek Ravichandran. Shamini Kumaresan is top seeded in the women’s event. Olympian Neha Aggarwal will be the sole local attraction in the senior category.

The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has received 600 entries for the tournament that will also feature the sub-junior (U-14), junior (U-17), and youth (U-20) in the boys and girls category.

Yamuna Sports Complex, the venue for the Rs.5 lakh event, will be used for the first time since the October Commonwealth Games. Hosting a big event will also be a test for the newly-formed Delhi State Table Tennis Association (DSTTA).

TTFI said finding the sponsors for the tournament was not easy but they have done whatever possible in the given time.

“We did not get any main sponsor but we got funds from various quarters,” Dhanraj Choudhary, secretary general, TTFI told IANS.

Lancer, Lava Mobile, Donic, Stag and TDI builders have agreed to be the associate sponsors.

Choudhary said the national players will relish playing at the Commonwealth Games venue.

“It is a world-class stadium and players from across the country will enjoy the facilities,” he said.