Record 375 paddlers to play in ranking tourney

A record 375 paddlers from all parts of the state would be seen in action in the Integral University 1st UP State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament, beginning Friday, at the Integral University here.

Top seed Hardik Paliwal of Agra and second seed Divyansh Srivastava of Lucknow would be the centre of attraction in the junior boys category, whereas Abhinav Belwal and Suhana Narginari would be looking for a good start of the season in the men’s and women’s singles, respectively.

Singles event in men, women, youth boys/girls, junior boys/ girls, sub-junior boys/girls and cadet boys/girls would be played during the three-day tournament. “Over 150 matches per day to be played and in all seven tables would be made operational for the smooth conduct of the matches,” UP Table Tennis Association’s secretary Arun Banerjee said. Almost all the ranked players have confirmed their participation. The finals are slated for July 23. International umpire Atin Rastogi has been named chief referee of the tournament. A sum of Rs 28,000 would be distributed among the winners. “It’s just a second venture of us to support a sport event, and we are hopeful to conduct it a fascinating manner,” organising committee chairman, Syed Nadeem Akhtar, who also happens to be the director of Integral University, told HT on Friday.

During the tournament, UPTTA will honour the players who have brought laurels, winning medals during the National Championships 2016-17 on Saturday at 7.30 p.m.

SEEDING

Men’s: 1-Abhinav Belwal (Gzb), 2-Sarthak Seth (Gzb), 3-Gautam Dhruvansh (Lko), 4-Sarthak Sharma (Gzb); Youth

boys: 1-Abhinav Belwal (Gzb), 2-Gautam Dhruvansh (Lko), 3-Sarthak Seth (Gzb), 4-Hardik Paliwal (Agr); Junior boys: 1-Hardik Paliwal (Agr), 2-Divyansh Srivastava (Lko), 3-Adarsh Srivastava (Lko), 4-Sarthak Seth (Gzb); Sub-junior boys: 1-Shivam Chandra (Gzb), 2-Ansh Rajput (Knp), 3-Sridhar Joshi (Gbn), 4-Kavya Gupta (Mbd);

Cadet boys: 1-Daksh Tyagi (Gzb), 2-Maulik Chaturvedi (Agr), 3-Avi Pal (Alld), 4-Chitransh Sakya (Knp).

Women’s: 1-Suhana Narginari (Mbd), 2-Moitree Chatterjee (Lko), 3-Tanu Gupta,(Alld), 4-Kavya Gupta (Alld); Youth

girls: 1-Tanu Gupta (Alld), 2-Suhana Narginari (Mbd), 3-Ayushi Singh (Alld), 4-Kavya Gupta (Alld); Junior girls: 1-Suhana Narginari (Mbd), 2-Radhapriya Goel (Mbd), 3-Esha Sakya (Knp), 4-Kavya Gupta (Alld); Sub-junior girls: 1-Radhapriya Goel (Gzb), 2-Ambika Gupta (Alld), 3-Esha Sakyan (Knp), 4-Suhani Sinha (Agr); Cadet girls: 1-Vartica Bharat (Agr), 2-Vaishnavi Yadav (Alld), 3-Manya Ahuja (Mbd), 4-Anukrita Basu (Gzb).