Harmeet Desai and Manika Batra get top seeds in UTT Senior Nationals

Indian Harmeet Desai, ranked 75th in the world, has been given the top seeding in the men's singles of the 85th UTT Senior Nationals and Interstate Table Tennis Championship, starting here from Thursday. While Manika Batra got the top billing in women's singles.

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Meanwhile, Manav Thakkar is the second seed after him whose ranking is 88. G Sathiyan (89) and Achanta Sharath Kamal (94) are the third and fourth seeds respectively.

Manika Batra, who is participating in the domestic competition for the second time this year, is ranked 35th in the world rankings. But Manika's entry in the singles raised several eyebrows, as it came after the closing date and the group draw, according to a release. Defending champion Sreeja Akula, whose world ranking is 88, has been seeded second.

UTT Senior Nationals department took a call on her inclusion after her employer, the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), requested TTFI through the mail.

According to PSPB officials, she had sent in the entry, but because of an oversight, the officials missed it. They realized their mistake when Manika called them and they requested the competition authorities as a one-time exception.

Players were divided into 112 (men) and 101 (women) groups, respectively, because of the overwhelming number of entries in the singles.

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"We knew it (entry) was late. But the technical committee of the TTFI thought it proper to include Manika, keeping her international stature in mind. It was a collective decision of the committee members," UTT Senior Nationals manager N Ganeshan said in the release.