Sutirtha-Ayhika pair make Asian Games cut; Sharath Kamal opts out of mixed
The women's doubles pair of Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee were rewarded for its WTT Contender title as the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) on Friday announced a 10-member squad for the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Asian Championships preceding that.
Reigning Commonwealth Games (CWG) mixed doubles champions, Sharath Kamal and Sreeja Akula, will not pair up for the mixed at the Games since Sharath, 40, felt the latter should play with another partner looking at the long term.
CWG singles champion Sharath, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah comprise the men's squad while Manika Batra, Sreeja, Sutirtha, Ayhika and Diya Chitale form the women's team for both events.
Sharath, the architect of the surprising CWG mixed doubles gold alongside Sreeja, opted out of pairing up with Sreeja keeping the next CWG in mind. Sreeja will instead partner the 29-year-old Desai.
“We need to start looking out for a second pair (in mixed), especially for the next Commonwealth Games which we don't have,” said Sharath. “Post Birmingham, I said Sreeja should be looking out for another player. So, if I come back and play with her (at the Asian Games), it will be a one-off tournament. That's not the right direction. That's why I felt she should be able to find another partner who is able to take her through in the future rather than depend on me.”
Sutirtha and Ayhika, who were both not part of the 2022 CWG, will be one of the two women's doubles combo at the Asian Games. The duo scripted a brilliant title run at the WTT Contender Tunis last month and is now the country’s top women's doubles pair (ranked world No.19)
They replaced Manika and Archana Kamath, who were a top-10 pair not too long ago but haven't had much success of late. Archana, who was originally picked and later dropped from the CWG squad amid a flurry of court cases, has been pushed to the reserves list for both events. The selection flip-flops led to the scratch pairing of Manika and young Diya playing doubles at the Birmingham CWG. At the Asian Games, Diya and Sreeja will pair up. Manika, who will play singles and mixed with Sathiyan, "opted out" of women's doubles to "not want to disturb the pairs already performing well," the TTFI release stated.
Sharath, Sathiyan, Manika and Sreeja will compete in singles at the Asian Games, where there are restrictions on two singles entries per gender.
SQUAD:
Men: Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah.
Women: Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, Diya Chitale.
Men's doubles: Sharath Kamal/G Sathiyan and Manav Thakkar/Manush Shah.
Women's doubles: Sutirtha Mukherjee/Ayhika Mukherjee and Sreeja Akula/Diya Chitale.
Mixed doubles: Manika Batra/G Sathiyan and Sreeja Akula/Harmeet Desai.
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