The Asian Cup, evidently began with an aim to sift cheese from chalk way back in 1983, has come a long way since its inception. Though not conducted on the scales of the Asian Championships, which also has the teams’ events and a tournament of longer duration, the Asian Cup is a three-day affair and essentially meant to help players stamp out their superiority in singles. That also explains why only top 16 paddlers in the men’s and women’s singles, selected on the basis of both world and national rankings, compete in the Asian Cup.

And there is a huge prize purse of $ 100,000 with the last-placed paddler in each section taking home at least $1400. Needless to say the championships are considered very important on the ATTU calendar and for the individual players, who have a chance to show their prowess. No wonder, because of these reasons, the Asian Cup has retained its charm all these years.

Top-ranked Chinese men paddlers Xu Xin (current world No 1) and Fan Zhendong (World Junior Champion 2012 Hyderabad) and Liu Shiwen (Current World No: 2) and World Junior Champion in 2010 at Bratislava and 2012 at Hyderavad, Zhu Yuling and a host of others along with India’s national champions Soumyajit Ghosh, Mouma Das, world’s top-ranked Indian Achanta Sharah Kamal and runner-up Poulami Ghatak will be seen in action during the championships.

For the record, India will be hosting the prestigious championships for the sixth time, having first hosted in 1984. And Jaipur (Rajasthan) will play host for the first time.