10 Indians qualify for main draw of Indian Open Table Tennis

New Delhi: Ten Indian paddlers, including four women, made it to the main singles draw of the NCC Indian Open ITTF Pro Tour 2010 after the qualifying round at the Yamuna Sports Complex here today.

In the men`s singles, Abhishek Ravichandran, Anirban Nandi, Sanil Shetty, Subhajit Saha, Amalraj Anthony Arputharaj and Sourav Chakraborty will join top seeded Indian Sharath Kamal in the main draw of 32 players. Already in the main draw, Sharath will begin his campaign against Ji Min Han of Korea tomorrow in the tournament which is a test event for the October 3-14 Commonwealth Games here.Saurav faces a task challenge tomorrow as he meets second seed Ning Gao from Singapore in the first round. Abhishek meets Chih Hu from Chinese Taipei. In the women`s singles event, Shamini Kumaresan, Madhurika Patkar, Pooja Sahastrabudhe and Nandita Saha have qualified for the main draw.Shamini has a difficult job at hand tomorrow as she meets tournament top seed Mengyu Yu from Singapore in the first round. On the other hand, Nandita Saha will play Sayaka Hirano of Japan, while top Indian seed Mouma Das will began her campaign by taking on Dal Rae Jin of Korea. Chief Indian coach Bhavani Mukherjee was happy with the performance of his wards and said, "The level of competition is tough in the tournament and our players played well." Speaking about the facility, Mukherjee said, "The venue is excellent and the facilities provided are world class. The field of play is good with right temperature and lighting." PTI