The UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Tournament will start in Delhi on September 7, featuring prominent players such as reigning national champion Diya Chitale and Commonwealth Games gold medalists G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai. This event has drawn a remarkable 2,958 entries. It marks the first national ranking tournament hosted by the Delhi State Table Tennis Association since 2008, although the Table Tennis Federation of India did hold one in the capital in 2012 with support from Haryana. The tournament will take place from September 7 to 14 at Thyagraj Stadium and will include competitions across 12 categories, including senior, U-19, U-17, U-15, U-13, and U-11 events.
Among the men’s national champions participating are Sathiyan, Harmeet, Anthony Amalraj, and Soumyajit Ghosh, who stepped back from national events after the 2012 London Olympics due to personal challenges. Delhi’s Payas Jain is also in the lineup. Chitale is expected to perform well in the women’s category, competing against veterans like Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar, Reeth Rishya, and Divya Deshpande. Notably, Manika Batra, a top player from Delhi, will not participate due to international commitments, and her world ranking has fallen to 55. Gurpreet Singh, president of DSTTA, noted that the high number of entries reflects significant interest in the tournament, stating, “I don’t remember the last time there were these many entries for a national ranking event.
We are fully ready to host the event.”