Gandhidham, June 03 : The table tennis season is all set to start with a bang as the top guns of the state gear up for the 1st Gujarat State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament 2022 that will be held in Surat from 4 to 7 June 2022.
The tournament, sponsored by Tapti Valley International School is being organised by Surat District Table Tennis Association (SDTTA) under the aegis of Gujarat State Table Tennis Association and will be held at the Tapti Valley International School, Olpad, Surat.
The tournament, that got 574 entries, will see top guns return to action after the season break where 104 enter the Direct qualifiers that includes the Top Seeds, Chitrax P. Bhatt (Ahmedabad), Burhanuddin V. Malubhai (Surat), Shlok A. Bajaj (Surat), Pratha Pawar (Ahmedabad and now Cadet (U13) girls National Rank-3), Himansh Dahiya (Ahmedabad), Vivaan Dave (Surat), Arya Kataria (Ahmedabad now Cadet (U-13) Boys National Rank-2 and many others.
Pratha Pawar, after winning the bronze in the Under-13 category of Nationals will pose a challenge to her co-competitors. She doesn’t show any travel fatigue of the Nationals journey and didn’t step back from persuading her fight for the ranking.
Likewise, Surat’s favourite and very own Krisha Patel, Cadet (U-13) Girls, who too went to the Nationals to make a mark has hyped the hopes by posing as a tough competition.
On the other hand, Arya Kataria, now the Sub-Junior (U-15) Boys, too shows no exhaustion after the Nationals tournament and is back to the State grind to be a challenge to the others and maintain his streak. Whereas Vivaan Dave is all set to give a solid rivalry to the former and level up his rankings.
While the Surat mates Shlok Bajaj Junior (U-17) Boys and Burhanuddin Malubhai Junior (U-19) Boys are back with their stroke on the tables of their home grounds to raise the battling excitement. The audience wait to see if they put up the show like in the last season.
Surat’s very own Filzah Fatema Kadri, last year’s State Rank 1 in Junior (U-19) Girls and Frenaz Chipia State Rank 1 in Women’s Singles, seem all ready to be in action and challenge the others. While both playing in the Women’s Single category this season, only future has it if they face each other in the last tournament or will they be knocked out by a better opponent.
Chitrax Bhatt shows sheer determination to win the tournament in the absence of his competitor and last year’s No.1 Ishaan Hingorani of Kutch who is currently training in the US.
This season will show whether the paddlers can sustain their ranks or give a tough fight to their opponents, especially after many of them returning back playing the Nationals.
Also, the season will bring out many unexplored seeds with hidden potentials.