The stage is set for 2nd State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament which gets under way at RTMNU’s Subhedar Hall, Ravi Nagar from Saturday. This year around 900 entries have been received for the championship which, according to the organisers, is highest till date. The championship will be formally inaugurated by West Nagpur MLA Vikas Thakre.

The competition will be held in Under-11, U-13, U-15, U-17, U-19 boys and girls and men and women’s categories.

This will be the second of the five ranking tournaments scheduled this season with the remaining three to be held at Chandrapur, Nanded and Pune or Thane. Players have a good chance to earn valuable points from this meet which will help them in getting selected in the Maharashtra team.

 

Prizes worth Rs 2.5 lakh would be distributed during the tournament. Nagpur’s international paddler Jennifer Verghese, who has been seeded top in two age categories — girls U-17 and Under-19 will be seen in action. Similarly, city’s Karan Kashyap (U-11, 4th seed), Purvi Renu (Girls U-11, 6th seed), Ikshika Umate (Girls U-15, 2nd seed and U-17 3rd seed) are also seeded players for the competition. A team of 25 officials will be handling the technical side of the tournament. International referee Mangesh Mopkar will be the chief referee. He will be assisted by Deepak Kanetkar. New eight table tennis tables will be used during the tournament while four tables will be kept in spare. Adv Ashutosh Potnis, Secretary, Maharashtra Table Tennis Association and Nagpur District Table Tennis Association is the Organising Secretary.