By Admin 
The last time top-flight table tennis came to Odisha — the unofficial capital of India’s sporting events — lockdown wasn’t part of daily vocabulary, the state was still under regional rule, A. Sharath Kamal was Indian sport’s poster boy, and Cuttack had just hosted the 2019 Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships.
Six years on, the sport returns to the state, this time to Bhubaneswar, with the 28th Asian Table Tennis Team Championships. The Kalinga Indoor Athletics Stadium will play host to more than 300 delegates from 22 Asian nations over five days starting Saturday. The world’s top-ranked paddlers — Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu among women, Wang Chuqin and Lin Shidong among men — headline a field brimming with world-class talent.
Though the event serves as a qualifier for next year’s World Championships in London, India’s men’s and women’s teams have already sealed direct qualification. The focus, therefore, will be on defending the twin bronze medals won in 2023 — a task that will test the hosts’ depth and resolve.
The men’s squad, led by the bespectacled duo of Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar, faces a stern quarterfinal against Hong Kong on Tuesday. In the women’s camp, with Sreeja Akula sidelined by a shoulder injury, Manika Batra will rely on Diya Chitale to keep India’s medal hopes alive.
The seedings: Men: China, Chinese Taipei, Korea Republic, India, Japan, Hong Kong (China).
Women: Japan, China, Hong Kong (China), India, DPR Korea, Korea Republic.
Quarterfinal line-up: Men: Japan vs DPR Korea, Q1 vs India, Hong Kong (China) vs Republic of Korea, Q2 vs China.
Women: China vs Q1, Japan vs Republic of Korea, India vs Hong Kong (China), Q2 vs Chinese Taipei.
Qualifier groups: Women: Group A: Thailand, Mongolia, Sri Lanka.
Group B: Singapore, Kazakhstan, Maldives.
Group C: Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan, Macau (China), Bangladesh
Group D: Malaysia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal.
Men: Group A: Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan.
Group B: Iran, Mongolia, Maldives.
Group C: Singapore, Uzbekistan, Oman.
Group D: Malaysia, DPR Korea, Macau (China).
Group E: Thailand, Qatar, Nepal, Bangladesh.