Four Indian paddlers will be in contention to make their cut for the Tokyo Olympics at the World Singles Qualification Tournament which is scheduled to get underwat in Doha, Qatar from March 14 to 17, 2021.

Nine Olympic berths will be up for grabs at the event at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena. Four berths are allocated for men, while women paddlers will vie for the five berths that will make them qualified for the Tokyo Olympics which got postponed from last year to July 2021 due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

The four Indians who will be in the fray for the qualifications are Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Achanta Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee.

Qualification procedure

A total of 73 entries have been received for men, while 60 entries have been received for women. In the men's singles category, three qualification spots will be available in stage one. The entrants will be split into three knockout rounds, starting from the round of 32. The winner of each knockout round will earn a berth for Tokyo Olympics, whereas the losing finalist and semi-finalist from each of the three knockouts will battle in stage two in a final knockout round, where the winner will eventually bag one more spot for Olympic.

For the women's singles, four qualification spots will be available in stage one. Individuals will be split into four knockouts, with the winner of each knockout qualifying for Tokyo Olympics. Like the men's qualifiers, the losing finalists from each of the four knockouts will battle to earn another singles spot.

The Indian challenge

In the women's competition, World no. 63 Manika Batra and world no 96. Sutirtha Mukherjee will be the two Indians who will take part. Whereas, World no 32 Achanta Sharath Kamal and world no 38 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran. The two top bets for India would be Sathiyan and Batra who won the National Championships this year.

Even if India misses the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics in the World Qualifiers, they will next opt to play in the Asian Table Tennis Olympic Qualifiers in the same venue which will be underway from March 18 to March 20. At the Asian Qualifiers, there will be 5 men's singles, 5 women's singles and one mixed-doubles quota on offer.

Tournament schedule

March 14

12:30 PM IST - 5:00 PM IST: Stage 1, Round 1

6:30 PM IST - 11:00 PM IST: Stage 1, Round 2

March 15

12:30 PM IST - 4:00 PM IST: Stage 1, Round 3

5:30 PM IST - 8:00 PM IST: Stage 1, Semi-final/ Final

March 16

12:30 PM IST - 2:00 PM IST: Stage 1, Final

5:30 PM IST - 10:30 PM IST: Stage 2, Round of 16, Quarter-final, Semi-final

March 17

12:30 PM IST - 1:30 PM IST: Stage 2, Semi-finals

6:00 PM IST - 6:30 PM IST: Stage 2, Finals