Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, alongside 35 other Indian paddlers, will compete in the singles qualifiers at the WTT Star Contender Goa 2024 to achieve the highest-ever Indian participation in a WTT event.
The second edition of the event will be played at the Peddem Indoor Stadium in Mapusa, Goa from January 23 to 28.
Nine Indians, including the highest world-ranked Indian paddler Manika Batra and Harmeet Desai, secured direct entry into the main draw. The inclusion of 32 new names in the qualifying list brings India’s total participation to 41 across categories. This surpasses the previous highest of 40 participants in the inaugural edition of the tournament.
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Besides experienced campaigners like Sharath, Sathiyan, Ayhika Mukherjee, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Sanil Shetty, the qualifiers will also provide glimpses of India’s bright future with the presence of promising youngsters such as the current national champion Poymantee Baisya, Payas Jain, S Fidel R Snehit, Mudit Dani, Jeet Chandra, Diya Chitale, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Archana Kamath, Swastika Ghosh and Suhana Saini among many others.
The 2023 World Championships doubles bronze medallist Cho Dae-seong, 17-year-old Oh Junsung from Korea and Hungarian paddler Bence Majoros are among the international stars to be in action in the qualifying rounds which will offer eight singles and four doubles main draw spots.
The WTT Star Contender Goa 2024, will showcase the presence of World No. 5 Hugo Calderano, alongside 16 other top-20 stars in the singles main draw.
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