New Delhi, 21 February (HS): The world's top table tennis players will showcase their talent in the WTT Star Contender to be held from 25 to 30 March at the Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai. In this prestigious tournament, world number four Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan and fifth ranked Japan's Hina Hayata will present their challenge in the men's and women's singles category.
Other top players of the tournament will include Brazil's Hugo Calderano, Egypt's Omar Assar, Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Korea's Jang Woojin in the men's category. At the same time, in the women's category, Japan's Miwa Harimoto, Satsuki Odo, Korea's Shin Yubin and Puerto Rico's Adriana Diaz will also try their luck for the title.
Indian players are ready to showcase their talent in this tournament. Sharath Kamal, G. Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar will be included in the main draw in men's singles. On the other hand, Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Ayhika Mukherjee and Yashaswini Ghorpade will present their claim from India in the women's category.
The list of players participating in men's, women's and mixed doubles category will be released soon.
Indian Table Tennis Federation Secretary Kamlesh Mehta called this event a matter of pride for India. He said, This is the third consecutive time that India is hosting a WTT event. This will not only be beneficial for Indian players but table tennis lovers will also get a golden opportunity to watch world class matches.
Top players who will be part of the tournament
Men's category: Tomokazu Harimoto (Japan, world ranking 4), Hugo Calderano (Brazil, 6), Jung Woojin (Korea, 12), Jonathan Groth (Denmark, 17), Omar Assar (Egypt, 18), Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany, 20), Ahn Jaehyun (Korea, 22), Cho Daeseong (Korea, 24) and Alvaro Robles (Spain, 29), Yukiya Uda (Japan, 30).
Women's category: Hina Hayata (Japan, 5), Miwa Harimoto (Japan, 6), Satsuki Odo (Japan, 8), Shin Yubin (Korea, 19); Cheng I-Ching (Taipei, 12), Sofia Polcanova (Austria, 15), Adriana Diaz (Puerto Rico, 16), Miyu Kihara (Japan, 17), Miyu Nagasaki (Japan, 24), Ju Cheonhui (Korea, 26).
Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
