WTT STAR CONTENDER DOHA : INDIAN STAR LINE UP, SCHEDULE AND DRAWS
High quality Table Tennis action for 2025 season to kick off with WTT STAR CONTENDER DOHA from 6th to 11th January at Lusail sports arena, Doha ; offering a total prize money of USD 2,75,000.
Qualifying round to be held on 6th and 7th January where as main draw matches will take place from 8th to 11th .
Qatar to witness many heavyweights namely Tomokazu Harimoto, Shin Yubin ,Dang Qiu, Hina Hayata, Miwa Harimoto and many as it is the season opener.
On the other hand a strong Indian squad is fielded to provide resistance.
INDIAN SQUAD –
MEN’S SINGLES :
Main Draw ; Sarath Kamal & Manav Thakkar
Qualifying draws ; Manush Shah #13 , Snehit Suravajjula, Payash jain & Anirban Ghosh
Manush will face world no.195 Florian in first qualifying round but for a main draw entry he needs to defeat the young Taipei paddler Chan Yu An the world no.81 .where as Payas Jain and Snehit faces eachother in opening qualifier round.
WOMENS SINGLES :
Main Draw ; Sreeja Akula #12 & Manika Batra #14
Qualifying draws ; Ayhika Mukherjee #5 & Sutirtha Mukherjee #7, Diya Chitale #12 & Poymantee Baisya
Sutirtha seeded 7th in qualifiers receives a direct entry to round two waiting for the result between Sarvinoz and Yang . Ayhika and Diya expected to fight for the same main draw berth. Poymantee faces Huang Yu-jie in opener.
MEN’S DOUBLES : Main draw ; Manav/Manush #3
Qualifying draws ; Sharath/Snehit
WOMEN’S DOUBLES : Main draw Ayhika/Sutirtha
Qualifying draws : Diya/Sreeja #1
MIXED DOUBLES : Main draw ; Manush/Diya #4
Qualifying draws ; Manav/Manika
Sharath/Snehit faces Hong Kong pair Kwan/Lam expected to make it to the main draws. Top seed Sreeja/Diya are up against Kim Seyun/Yoon Hyobin the Korean duo .
Manika/Manav will start their campaign against French opponent Flavian Coton/Charlotte Lutz .
Last year Ayhika/Sutirtha handed on a close defeat by Jeon Jihee and Shin Yubin (2-3 games in semis). Manika and Sreeja had a Quarter final finish in singles category.
This time Manika/Manav could be the dark horse and Ayhika/Sutirtha are a formidable duo for sure.
Fans can catch the live action on WTT youtube channel.
After a progressive 2024 Indian squad will look forward to push harder this time .
