Ghosh, Batra top seeds in West Zone leg

Arjun Ghosh of Airports Authority of India was given top billing in the men singles and Manika Batra on the women’s side in the ongoing 11Sports national ranking championships ( West Zone) for the Mayor Cup in Thane.

At the end of the qualification rounds in both sections, with two players getting into the main draw, prominent names including two veterans and former national champions Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak took top slots in their respective groups while quite a few youngsters, too, made the cut.

Anthony Amalraj is the men’s second seed and will be keen to make a title push. The third seed is Manav Thakkar, who won his first men singles title in the previous tournament, and Raj Mondal is fourth.

Local lad and no. 5 seed Sanil Shetty will be a crowd favourite and get a lot of support when he makes his appearance in the main draw while Sushmit Sriram is seeded six. Sougata Sarkar and Abhishek Yadav and the no. 7 and 8 seeds in the draw of 128.

Among the 9- 16 players getting direct entry into the main draw are floaters like Sourav Saha, Devesh Karia and Jubin Kumar who can cause a flutter or two.

On the women’s side, Manika Batra is in a battle for a third title of the season with thoird seed Pooja Sahasrabudhe, while the other six seeds, including no. 2 Sutirtha Mukherjee and no. 4 Madhurika Patkar, will want to end the season with at least one title to their name.