ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2023 | Top Indian paddlers make it to prestigious event
India will send three men's singles competitors and four women's singles competitors to the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2023, which will take place in Durban from May 20 to May 28 of this year. Apart from this, Indians will be seen in action in the doubles events too.
The men's singles qualifiers for the mega event are the seasoned Sharath Kamal Achanta, G Sathiyan, and Manush Shah, while the women's singles qualifiers are 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Mukherjee, and Reeth Tennison.
Men's and women's doubles teams of two, as well as mixed doubles teams of two, have qualified for this competition. In men's doubles, the top Indian duo of Sharath-Sathiyan and Hermeet Desai/Manush Shah made the cut, while Manika Batra/Archana Kamath and Sreeja Akula/Diya Chitale will be competing in women's doubles.
Satniyan/Manika Batra and Manav Thakkar/Archana Kamath are the two couples that have qualified for the mixed doubles tournament. The top paddlers in the world will compete at the World Championships in Durban, including Fan Zhendong, Sun Yingsha, Wang Chuqin, Wang Manyu, Tomokazu Harimoto, Chen Meng, Ma Long, Mima Ito, Hugo Calderano, and Wang Yidi.
The current champions, Fan Zhendong and Wang Manyu of China will attempt to defend their titles, but the pair is expected to face stiff competition from other member associations, including Japan's Harimoto and Sweden's Truls Moregard, as well as from compatriots Wang Chuqin, the world's No. 2 player, and Sun Yingsha, the top player in the world.
The men's doubles event, won by the Swedish team of Mattias Falck and Kristian Karlsson, was the only exception to China's four-out-of-five title sweep at the most recent World Championships in Houston, Texas, in 2021.
The Durban International Convention Center will host the table tennis premier event, which will include 64 couples in the doubles events and 128 players in each of the men's and women's singles championships.