TT Asian Cup 2025: Sreeja Akula, Sharath Kamal lead Indian charge – Preview

The 2025 Table Tennis Asian Cup is all set to commence on Friday in Shenzhen, China. The prestigious continental competition will see a total of six Indians – three each in men's singles and women's singles – in contention.

The Asian Cup is a prestigious individual tournament, which was first held in the year 1983. In 33 editions of the competition since – the last of which was held in 2022 – India have won just three medals.

Chetan Baboor has won two of those – a men's singles silver in 1997 when the tournament was held in Pune and a bronze in the next edition in 2000 in Mumbai.

India then had to wait for more than two decades to further taste success in the continental competition, when Manika Batra bagged the women's singles bronze medal in the last edition.

Indians in contention

However, much to the dismay of Indian fans, Batra will not be in action in the 34th edition of the Asian Cup in Shenzhen. The Commonwealth Games gold medalist had qualified for the event but pulled out due to a niggle.

Batra has since been replaced by the young Yashashwini Ghorpade, who has shown great signs since making her debut last year. The 20-year-old Ghorpade is ranked 82nd in the world currently, a career best.

Ghorpade will have Sreeja Akula and Ayhika Mukherjee for company in the women's singles event.

Meanwhile, veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal will lead the Indian challenge in the men's singles competition. He will be joined by the Gujarat duo of Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai as the other Indians in contention.

Format

Both the men's singles and women's singles event will see a total of 32 players in action, aiming for glory. The players for both events have been divided into eight groups of four paddlers each.

The paddlers will fight it out in a round robin stage, playing a total of three matches. The top two from each group will advance to the knockouts, which starts with the pre-quarterfinals or the Round of 16.

India's chances

Indian national coach Massimo Costantini was quite bullish of India's chances in the competition.

He acknowledged that it will not be an easy tournament by any means with all the top players from the continent in action, but maintained that if the players up to their potential there's a chance to notch up some big wins.

"It will be extremely competitive," Costantini told The Bridge. "The Chinese will have an extra quota because they are the hosts and the Asian Championships winners also have an extra quota.

"When you play individually, the main part is the draw. The first objective is to qualify in top two and make it to single eliminations and see who we get [as opponents]. But of course, we are ready," he added.

The road is tough for Indian paddlers in the competition.

Akula, the country's highest ranked women's singles paddler, is drawn in Group 1 alongside world No 1 Sun Yingsha. She, however, will have a relatively easier start to the competition going up against a much lower ranked Mohamed Aia of Qatar in her first match.

Akula will then take on Sun before capping off her round robin campaign against a lower ranked Chien-Tung Chuan of Chinese Taipei.

Sharath Kamal, in men's singles, has a relatively tougher route as he readies himself to open his campaign against China's world No 3 Lian Jingkun. He will also face a higher ranked Japanese paddler Sora Matsushima in Group 3.

Thakkar, placed in Group 7 of men's singles, is the third seed in his group of four whereas Desai is the lowest ranked in Group 8.

It is no different for Ghorpade and Mukherjee, who are the bottom seeds in their respective women's singles group.

What's at stake?

Despite the tough road ahead, there's a massive opportunity on offer for all the six paddlers in contention.

A semi-final finish here will help them qualify for the upcoming 2025 ITTF World Cup in Macao.

Indian squad

Men's Singles: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Manav Thakkar, Harmeet Desai

Women's Singles: Sreeja Akula, Ayhika Mukherjee, Yashashwini Ghorpade

Schedule

The 2025 Asian Cup will start on Friday, February 19, 2025. The first two days will see round robin action before the knock outs start on February 21.

The final will be played on 23 February, 2025.