Sharath Kamal's Final Rally: Chennai Hosts WTT Star Contender 2025

Indian table tennis icon Sharath Kamal is bidding farewell with the WTT Star Contender 2025 in Chennai. The tournament, featuring international stars, will see a promising Indian contingent in both singles and doubles. Notable players include Manika Batra and Tomokazu Harimoto.

Indian table tennis legend Achanta Sharath Kamal is preparing for his final competitive appearance in front of a home audience. The World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender 2025 event is set to begin in Chennai at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium on Tuesday. Kamal, a five-time Olympian, had previously announced his intention to retire from the sport following this tournament. He currently holds the title of Commonwealth Games singles champion and is the designated flag bearer for India's Paris 2024 Olympics delegation.

The tournament will feature main draw events for both men's and women's singles, comprising a 48-player field. Additionally, all doubles events—men's, women's, and mixed—will include 16 pairs, according to Olympics.com. Sharath Kamal is slated to compete in both the men's singles and doubles categories, the latter alongside Snehit Suravajjula.

India is set to have an unprecedented 19 players in the main draw, among them several national champions and Olympians. National champions Manush Shah and Diya Chitale were granted wildcard entries last week. Olympians Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Ayhika Mukherjee, and Yashaswini Ghorpade have secured direct entries in the women's singles main draw. In the men's singles category, contenders such as Sharath Kamal, Manav Thakkar, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, and Harmeet Desai have qualified based on their rankings. The qualifying rounds will take place from March 25-26, with main draw matches scheduled for March 27-30. Several international stars are expected to add a global flair to Sharath Kamal's farewell tournament. Noteworthy entrants include Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto, ranked third in men's singles, and Hina Hayata, ranked fifth in women's singles.

Chennai is the second Indian city, after Goa, to host a major World Table Tennis event, following Goa's two-year tenure of conducting WTT Star Contenders events. (ANI)

(With inputs from agencies.)