Event Section
Qualifiers identified; biggies to join action

 

New Delhi, August 4: With the team events having concluded yesterday in the LPS Bossard 47th All India Inter-Institutional Championships, it was time for players to show their prowess in singles at the Table Tennis Foundation hall here as the qualification processes began today.

 

With 122 men players, the main draw will be of 128 with six byes, while it will be a draw of 64 in women section with two preliminary rounds because of 33 groups.   

 

The expanded draw has given wider opportunity—instead of one player qualifying from each group now two make it to the main draw—for the players. The main draw which begins tomorrow will see the seeded players joining action later in the day tomorrow. The competition department of TTFI had conducted the open draw on the first day for the seeded players with the top-heavy draw.

 

It also meant that the possibility of top-seeded Sharath Kamal running early into Anthony Amalraj (No. 16 seed) in the pre-quarters and Soumyajit Ghosh (No. 8) in the quarters. But for No. 2 seed G. Sathiyan, who is in the bottom half, is not expected to face any early troubles from the bottom half.

 

Top-8 seeds:

 

Men: A Sharath Kamal, G. Sathiyan, Arjun Ghosh, Harmeet Desai, Raj Mondal, Sougata Sarkar, Subhajit Saha, Soumyajit Ghosh.

 

Women: Madhurika Patkar, Suthirtha Mukherjee, Pooja Shasrabuddhe, Akula Sreeja, Poulami Ghatak, Manika btra, Takeme Sarkar and Archana Kamath.