Gujarat Paddlers Set for World TT Championships in Qatar

Gandhidham, Gujarat – Gujarat’s three most prolific paddlers-Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah and Harmeet Desai-were named in the Indian squad for the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2025 to be organised from May 17 to 25 in Doha, Qatar and are raring to take on world’s best paddlers.   

The megaevent will have five events featuring top players vying for glory in men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.

Vadodara-boy Manush will be the busiest of them all as he will be featuring in three events-men’s singles, men’s doubles with Manav and mixed doubles with Diya Chitale.

Highest-ranked Indian in world ranking, Surat-lad Manav (49), will open his Worlds campaign against Timothy Choi NZ in the men’s singles round of 128 while Manush, ranked 72, will take on Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia in his round of 128 tie.

Eight seeds in men’s doubles, Manav and Manush will join forces to take on Slovenia’s unseeded pairing of Peter Hribar and Deni Kozul in the round of 64. Manav-Manush are ranked as high as ninth in the world and will fancy a good finish in the Championships.  

Other Gujarat paddler Harmeet will team up with G Sathiyan as they lock horns with Maciej Kolodziejczyk of Poland and Vladislav Ursu of Moldovan in an easy round of 64 encounter.

In the mix doubles section, southpaw Manush and Diya, seeded 9 in the meet, play against Mehdi Bouloussa and Malissa Nasri Algeria while 14th seeds Surat’s pride Harmeet and Yashaswini Ghorpade will clash with unseeded French pair of Thibault Poret and Leana Hochart in their respective round of 64 matches.

Gujarat State Table Tennis Association (GSTTA) president Pramod Chaudhary said that he is confident of a great show by Gujarat players. “Our players have been performing at the highest level since a long time. Their campaign in Doha will be a great one,” shri Chaudhary said.

Indian team: Men’s singles: 1. Manav Thakkar 2. Manush Shah 3. G. Sathiyan 4. Ankur Bhattacharjee. Women’s singles: 1. Sreeja Akula 2. Manika Batra 3. Diya Chitale 4. Yashaswini Ghorpade. Men’s doubles: 1. Manav/Manush 2. Harmeet/Sathiyan. Women’s doubles: 1. Ayhika/Sutirtha 2. Diya/Yashaswini. Mix doubles: 1. Manush/Diya 2. Harmeet/Yashaswini.