Leading players to participate in Indian Open-ITTF Pro Tour

New Delhi, Feb 7 (UNI) Singapore's World number 28 Gao Ning and compatriot 34-ranked Sun Bei Bei start as favourites in the men's and women's sections respectively in the Indian Open ITTF Pro Tour Table Tennis Event starting here from tomorrow.

India's Achanta Sharath Kamal has been seeded fifth in men's section whil compatriots Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das given fourth and fifth seedings among women.

Seventy-six players, including 27 women, from 14 countries will vie for top honours in the 25,000 dollar prize money event being held in India for the first time.

Sixteen players in men's section and eight in women's section have been given direct entry.

The remaining 33 men and 19 women players will play in the preliminary rounds.

There are 11 groups of three players each in men's section and winners of each group along with five lucky losers will qualify for the knock out stage to play with seeded players in the round of 32.

In the women's section, 19 players have been divided into six groups with the last group having four players.

Six group winners along with two lucky losers will join the eight seeded players in the knock out round of 16.

Talking to newspersons, Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) president Ajay Singh Chauthala today said efforts were being made to make it an annual fixture.

''The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has sent its observer Karl Jindrak to be the competition manager and based on his report the world body will take the decision to allot the event to India on regular basis,'' he added.

TTFI secretary general MC Chowhan said the tour has not been able to attract top Chinese players because of low prize money.

''For this type of tournament players have to pay their own boarding, lodging, plus air fare,'' he said.

He hoped that from next year onwards the prize money will be increased substantially and more top players will take part in the tournament.

Chowhan said this year Qatar and Kuwait were holding one lakh dollar-prize money Pro-tour events and they have attracted much stronger field.

He said TTFI will also hold Commonwealth Championship in Jaipur from May 30 to June 5 and 10,000 dollar World Junior Circuit event in Pune in September. Asian Junior Championship will also be held in June along with the world event, he added.

Seeded players: Men: 1. Goa Ning (Sin); 2. Yang Zi (Sin); 3. Thiago Monteiro (Brazil); 4. Roko Tosic (Cro); 5. Sharath Kamal (Ind); 6. Cai Xiao Li (Sin); 7. Soumyadeep Roy (Ind); 8. Andrej Gacina (Cro); 9. Ma Liang (Sin); 10. Subhajit Saha (Ind) Women: 1. Sun Bei Bei (Sin); 2. Yu Meng Yu (Sin); 3. Yuki Nonaka(JPN); 4. Pollomi Ghatak (Ind); 5. Mouma Das (Ind); 6. Su Yue (Sin); 7. Nandita Saha (Ind); 8. Ma Ming Lu (Sin).

UNI