Panchkula, October 17: After a year of a lull with the pandemic taking center stage, the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships get underway with the North Zone events beginning at the Tau Devi Lal Multipurpose Stadium from tomorrow.

However, the North Zone legs, divided into two parts, will see only two events in the first—Men and Women, Youth Under-19 Boys and Girls—with Haryana playing the hosts. In the second, we will witness the Youth Under-17, Under 15, and Under-13 for both Boys and Girls moving over to Mohali with Punjab staging them.

The ‘Youth’ nomenclature associated with events other than the seniors is in tune with the structural changes the international federation has effected in recent times.

With reigning national champions G. Sathiyan and Manika Batra opting out of the zonal event, A. Sharath Kamal, who finished a runner-up last year at the Nationals held here, will get the pride of place in seeding. Similarly, it will be Sreeja Akula, who will be the top seed in the women’s section.

Among the other seeds, Manav Thakkar, Soumyajit Ghosh, and Sanil Shetty will follow Sharath. Harmeet Desai, Amalraj, Ronit Bhanja and Sushmit Sriram have been placed in the 5-8 brackets of the seeding list. Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee and Reeth Rishya are seeded in that order behind Sreeja, while Takeme Sarkar, Anusha Kutumbale, Krittwika Sinha Roy and Prapti Sen come in the 5-8 seeding brackets.

The National Ranking events, a regular feature until 2019, could not be held last year with Covid-19 affecting all activities, including sports. These are events that not only prepare players for the National Championships but also provide them with valuable points, the basis for selection into the national squad along the world ranking points obtained by the individuals.

However, for the players competing here, the attraction will be the presence of Sharath Kamal, the top-ranked Indian in the world at No. 32, who is most likely to make his appearance on Day 2 evening. It will be interesting to see the 39-year-old nine-time national champion motivating himself to stay in the thick of the action.

He will, undoubtedly, be the spearhead at the November 21-29 World Championships in Houston. The championships here is just a precursor for Sharath, the kind of practice session he would look forward to before the WTT Contenders in Tunisia and Slovenia.

As for the entries for the North Zone, there are 253 and 161 in the men’s and women’s categories, respectively. Apart from the top 16 men paddlers, the rest divided into 64 groups, will play the qualifiers. Similarly, leaving aside the eight seeded women players, the remaining players will compete in 40 groups to book their slots in the main draw.

As usual, Stag will provide the equipment—from flooring to tables—for the events here. However, the DHS balls will be in use to help players get accustomed to them as they are most likely to see the use of this brand in Slovenia and Houston.

According to competition manager N. Ganeshan, veteran A. S. Kler returns to action and he will have the support of a deputy in Atul Dubey. Both will have the assistance of 45 Blue Badge and international umpires.