India is set to make a mark at the upcoming ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2023, which will take place in Durban from May 20 to May 28 of this year. The Indian contingent will be sending three men’s singles competitors and four women’s singles competitors to the prestigious event, in addition to competing in the doubles events.
The Indian men’s singles qualifiers for the mega event are the seasoned Sharath Kamal Achanta, G Sathiyan, and Manush Shah. Meanwhile, the women’s singles qualifiers include 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Mukherjee, and Reeth Tennison.
The Indian doubles teams have also qualified for the competition. In men’s doubles, the top Indian duo of Sharath-Sathiyan and Hermeet Desai/Manush Shah made the cut. In the women’s doubles, Manika Batra/Archana Kamath and Sreeja Akula/Diya Chitale will be competing.
Furthermore, the mixed doubles teams of Satniyan/Manika Batra and Manav Thakkar/Archana Kamath have also qualified for the tournament.
The top paddlers in the world, including Fan Zhendong, Sun Yingsha, Wang Chuqin, Wang Manyu, Tomokazu Harimoto, Chen Meng, Ma Long, Mima Ito, Hugo Calderano, and Wang Yidi, will be competing in the World Championships. Defending champions Fan Zhendong and Wang Manyu of China will face stiff competition from other member associations, including Japan’s Harimoto and Sweden’s Truls Moregard, as well as compatriots Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha.
The Durban International Convention Center will host the premier table tennis event, which will include 64 couples in the doubles events and 128 players in each of the men’s and women’s singles championships. The men’s doubles event, won by the Swedish team of Mattias Falck and Kristian Karlsson, was the only exception to China’s four-out-of-five title sweep at the most recent World Championships in Houston, Texas, in 2021.