Eight Gujarat women paddlers enter main draw

Surat : Eight Gujarat paddlers showed remarkable resilience as they booked their women’s main draw berths at the UTT 86th Senior National Inter-State Table Tennis Championships 2024 played at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium from January 19 to 26.

The Championships is organized by Gujarat State Table Tennis Association (GSTTA) and Table Tennis Association of Surat District (TTASD) under the aegis of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) with the support of Sports Authority of India (SAI), Sports Authority of Gujarat (SAG) and Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC).

The title sponsor of the event is UTT and the event is powered by Hero, co-sponsored by NJ Group, associate sponsored by Gujarat Tourism, ONGC, Pratibha Group and Airport Authority of India. Stiga will be equipment partners while SIDS Hospital will be the medical partner.

Gujarat’s lead player Krittwika Sinha Roy set the perfect example for her state-mates by sealing her main draw berth first. Oishiki Joardar, Siddhi Patel, Frenaz Chipia, Filzahfatema Kadri, Pratha Pawar, Aafrien Murad and Riya Jaiswal also got the main draw tickets.

Meanwhile, in a major upset, mixed doubles’ top seeds Manush Shah (from Vadodara) and Diya Chitale, representing Reserve Bank of India, were thrown out of the tournament by the Odisha pairing of Tushar Chauhan and Swetapadma Dalai 8-11, 5-11, 7-11 in the round of 64.