The highest level of the Table Tennis tournament ever to be played in India, the WTT Star Contender Goa is being hosted by the Government of Goa. The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) will also be the supporting partner of the tournament. It promises to be a treat of high voltage world-class Table Tennis action at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor stadium from 27th February to 5th March.
Besides MA Long, who at 34 is one of Chinese Table Tennis’ foremost talents, another upcoming Chinese star Wang Chuqin, who is the current world number three in the men’s rankings, has also received one of the four WTT nominations. The 22-year-old won the WTT Cup Finals last year besides three other titles in a short but impressive career. The other two WTT nominations were picked up by the experience of senior German paddler Patrick Franziska in the men’s draw and Monaco’s Xiaoxin Yang in the women’s draw.
German world number 11 Dang Qiu and Korean world number 18 Jang Woojin picked up the men’s wildcards while Puerto Rican Adriana Diaz and senior Portuguese paddler Fu Yu were handed the wildcards in the women’s singles.
Besides the reigning Chinese Olympic Champions, the field also boasts of current world number one’s Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha, as well as such exciting talent as Tomakazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata of Japan and Trul Moregard of Sweden. The Indian challenge will be led by icon Sharath Kamal, besides the likes of Sathiyan Gnansekaran and Manika Batra.