India on the verge of history: TT teams qualification scenarios for Paris Olympics

The Indian men’s and women’s table tennis teams can qualify for the Olympics for the first time ever by securing world ranking spots, despite losing their pre-quarterfinal matches at the ITTF World Table Tennis Team Championships in Busan on Wednesday.

All Indians are in a frenzy since the exit of the Indian teams from this event, wondering whether they can qualify for the Olympics or not. They are taking out their calculators to find a solution. The chances of both teams seem certain, and if this happens, it will be historic for the Indian table tennis fraternity.

Here, The Bridge is looking at the possible qualification scenarios for both the Indian teams.

Women's team - 4 Ranking spots available

Women's team event will offer 16 spots for the Paris Olympics, out of which 12 are already undertaken from continental and world qualifying events. They are currently ranked 17 in the world.

Host (1) - France

Continental spot (6) - Australia, China, Germany, USA, Brazil, Egypt

World Championships (5) - (Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Roumania)

The remaining four spots will go to the rankings quota, released in the first week of March.

Teams in Contention for Ranking spot (8) - Puerto Rico (9), Singapore (10), Portugal (11), Slovakia (13), Hungary (16), India (17), Thailand(18), Poland (20).

Now, looking at the scenarios - Puerto Rico suffered a group-stage exit from the world team and will fall below India in the rankings with a drop of 700+ points.

Singapore, Slovakia, and Hungary suffered a round of 32 exits so they will also fall in rankings with a loss of the points of their last world championships.

Teams left (5) - Portugal (11), India (17), Thailand(18), Poland (20).

Thailand and Poland will rise above India in the rankings with the addition of points from this world championships as they suffered group stage exit in the last one in 2022.

India is neither gaining nor losing the points as they successfully defended the pre-quarterfinal finish from the last edition.

In Portugal's case, they will also lose points from the last edition where they produced a quarterfinal finish.

Conclusion - Thailand, Poland, India, and Portugal will earn the four possible team quotas from Rankings.

Men's team - 3 Ranking spots available

Indian men's teams are ranked 15 in the world, the event will also offer 16 spots for the Paris Olympics, out of which 13 are already taken from continental and world qualifying events.

Host (1) - France

Continental spot (6) - Australia, China, Sweden, Canada, Brazil, Egypt

World Championships (6) - (Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Portugal, Denmark, Germany)

The remaining three spots will go to the rankings quota which will be released in the first week of March.

Teams in Contention for Ranking spot (6) - Hong Kong (11), Slovenia (12), Croatia (13), India (15), England(16), USA (21).

Now, looking at the scenarios - the USA suffered a group stage exit from the world team and will remain below India in the rankings.

England suffered a round of 32 exit so they will also remain below India in rankings with a loss of the points of their last world championships.

Hong Kong also lost their round of 32 clash to Austria and hence they will also lose a big chunk of points from their quarterfinal finish in the last edition and will fall below India in ranking.

Teams left (3) - Slovenia (11), Croatia (13), India (15)

India is neither gaining nor losing the points as they successfully defended the pre-quarterfinal finish from the last edition. Similarly, Slovenia and Croatia defended their points from the last edition where they registered a pre-quarterfinal finish.

Conclusion - Slovenia, Croatia, and India will earn the three possible team quotas from Rankings.

Probable Indian Lineup

The team quota for the Olympics will guarantee two individual singles quotas for the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in each of the men's and women's singles categories.

Currently, the women's singles individual event appears to be well-positioned, with Manika Batra leading the ranking charts among Indian players with the highest win percentage, and India's no. 2, Sreeja Akula, also demonstrating a significant lead over the rest of the field in the current rankings.

However, Ayhika Mukherjee's performance at the world team championships and a strong showing from Archana Kamath in recent events have added intrigue to the qualification scenario for the second spot.

In the men's singles, Harmeet Desai stands out as the only Indian player who has demonstrated consistency over the past year, while Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, and Manav Thakkar have experienced fluctuating form.

The Table Tennis Federation of India has clarified that they will utilize their own selection policy to determine the two singles players for the Olympics, rather than relying solely on world ranking places.

"If India qualifies as a team for the Paris Olympics 2024, they obtain (2) quota places for singles. Besides the top two (2) highest-ranked players in the world ranking of Week 25 in 2024 (Tuesday 18 June 2024), the part of the Indian team chosen as per TTFI selection policy will be eligible to participate in the singles events of the Paris Olympics 2024." TTFI's statement in a press release." They will select the two highest-ranked players from the team event to compete in the singles.