Panchkula, December 7: The UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships, beginning at the Tau Devi Lal Indoor Stadium tomorrow, would mark the end of Season 2023, and a successful one at that, in contrast to the previous one.

There are more reasons than one for the success. Take, for instance, the torrent of entries in each of the five tournaments. The entries for the last event here have breached the figure of 2,200, with 1,250 players from 46 states and institutions participating.

All top players like A. Sharath Kamal, G. Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, and Manav Thakkar in the men's category and Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, Archana Kamath in the women's section, besides a host of others, have consistently competed, amply projecting the significance of these ranking events.

Of course, the only omission to this date has been Manika Batra. She has not participated in any ranking event and is doubtful if she will turn out for the upcoming Inter-State Senior Nationals. If at all, she may compete in the women's singles as PSPB, the institution she represents, did not qualify for the team championships. 

Yet, Manika has maintained her world rankings (No. 36) so well that she is an automatic choice on the mere strength of world rankings for the selectors to include her in the squads. The next woman with the highest ranking is Sreeja at No. 82. The rest are in the above 100 bracket.

But it cannot be the case with any male player, including Sharath or Sathiyan. Harmeet is the lone Indian with the highest world rankings at No. 74, and Manav (87) and Sathiyan (92) follow him in that order.

This tournament will see Harmeet, Manav, Archana, Sutirtha, and Ayhika, among others, vying with one another for the coveted singles title. Unfortunately, Sathiyan will miss the event owing to the back spasm he suffered from during the final in Vijayawada, while Sharath is in Lausanne for a meeting as chairman of the ITTF's Athletes' Commission. Diya Chitale, too, has not entered here following her ankle injury. It leaves the field for the contenders and aspirants to have a shot at the titles before the Nationals.

But that will be seen at the fag-end of the ranking championships. Before that, the Youth Boys and Girls in U-11 and U-13 categories will start the proceedings tomorrow with their group matches. The organizers and the competition department have made a conscious decision not to give walkovers in any of these events until the third round if the players entered here are unable to reach the venue in time. Gagandeep Singh, the HTTA secretary, has informed the competition department to wait until the end of the third-round group events.

Ganeshan, the competition manager, said that A.S. Kler will be the referee for the events, with Mangesh Mopker and Nalin Somani as his deputy and Gaurav Phansalkar to assist them. They all will have the services of 60 other technical officials, including Blue Badge, International and National umpires. “Stag Global flooring, tables, and balls will be in use during the championships, but for the seniors, we will use  DHS balls,” said Ganeshan.