Home advantage for Ghosh
Over 700 paddlers will participate in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships with focus on local players Soumyajit Ghosh and Ankita Das, to be held in Siliguri, West Bengal, from Monday.
Though both A. Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan will be missing from action due to their preoccupation with tournaments abroad, other players, particularly those in reckoning for national team selection for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games are aware how important it is to be figuring among the top five in the ranking chart.
Kamal and Sathiyan's absence presents Ghosh with a good opportunity to win his season's first crown. Anthony Amalraj, with back-to-back men singles titles at Indore and Dharwad, stands in the way, along with Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty.
Challengers also include Subhajit Saha, Sourav Saha, Jubin Kumar, Devesh Karia, Sushmit Sriram and upcoming talents Arjun Ghosh and Manav Thakkar.
In women's singles, reigning champion Madhurika Patkar, former national champions Manika Batra, Mouma Das and Poulami Ghatak along with Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Ankita Das and Suthirtha Mukherjee will be in fray for the title.
Spotlight will also be on Ayhika Mukerjee.
The talented Archana Kamath is yet to find her feet in the higher category but can still pose a threat.
In the youth, junior, sub-junior and cadet sections, several new faces have emerged and competition will be intense.