Record entries for Senior Table Tennis Nationals

An unprecedented number of teams will participate in the 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships, beginning in Shillong from April 18, as the draws were held electronically for the first time on Thursday.

Thirty-eight men's and 35 women's teams have entered the fray, the largest ever in the history of Senior Nationals. The Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) and the Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) are the two institutional teams that made the cut as title winners of the 2019 edition.

The performance of teams at the Hyderabad Nationals became the yardstick to consider seedings. The draws, using new software, were held by Justice (Retd) Mukul Mudgal through a click of the mouse button at his residence in the presence of chairperson Justice Gita Mittal (Retd), SD Mudgil -- the members of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) running the suspended TTFI, chief national coach Manjit Singh Dua, competition manager N Ganeshan and chief referee AS Kler.

Chetan Mittal, the third member of CoA, joined the meeting from Chandigarh. Top players of the country, who will be competing in the Nationals, also joined the live draw ceremony. As for the singles events, of the 307 men and 243 women competing in the championships, the top 16 in the men's section and eight in women have been given direct entry into the main draw. But for seedings, the top-50 world ranking was fixed as the benchmark.

Only three players -- Sharath Kamal (No. 38), G. Sathiyan (39) and Manika Batra(48) -- met the criteria and have been seeded No. 1 and 2 (men) and No. 1 (women) accordingly. The entries in men's and women's doubles have been limited to two per team, per gender for states and one each for the institutions, as has been the practice. However, in mixed doubles, four and two pairs, respectively, have been allowed. The paired events will be conducted on a knockout basis.