Four Indians seeded for Asian Cup TT

Our Correspondent

Four Indians, including former men's national champion and Olympian Chetan Baboor, figure in the list of 16 seeds in the men's and women's singles for the US $25,000 Asian Cup table tennis championships, begining in Bombay on Friday.

Hong Kong's Cheung Yuk, ranked No 32 in the world has been give the pride of place in the men's singles while teammate Leung Chu Yan, ranked No 52 is the second seed.

Baboor, who has a ranking of 84, is seeded third ahead of fourth seed Yanagida Toshinori of Japan (248), fifth seed Cai Xiao Li (276) of Singapore, sixth seed Mehran Ahadi (352) of Iran, seventh seed Ryusuke Sakamoto (375) of Japan and eighth seed Bengal's Soumyadeep Roy (No 394). Chennai-based south paw S Raman is the third Indian in the fray.

In the women's singles Bengal paddlers Mouma Das (214) and Poulomi Ghatak (246) are seeded seventh and eighth respectively. Korean Kim Kyung Ha (42), Lau Suifei (55) of Hong Kong and Zhang Xue Ling (56) of Singapore are the top three seeds respectively.

Kwok Fong Fong (61) of Hong Kong, Tan Paey Fem (85) of Singapore and Rossy Pretivi Dipoyenti (124) of Indonasia are seeded fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

Yatin Tipnis, the secretary of the organising committee, told newsmen at a press briefing, that the two top men paddlers from 12 Asian countries and two top women from 11 countires will vie for top honours. India, as hosts, and reigning champions China will field three players in each category.

Tipnis disclosed that the men's champion will receive US$ 6,000 (around Rs 2,70,000) while the runner-up will get US$ 3000 (around Rs 1,35,000). The losing semi-finalists will get US$ 1,250 and the losing quarter-finalists US$ 600.

The women's prize-money break-up is as follows: Winner: US$5,000; runner-up: US$2,500; Losing semi-finalists: US$1,000; losing quarter-finalists: US$ 400 US.

The players, in both sections, will play a round-robin league in the four groups they have been divided into. The top two players from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals, which will be played on a knock-out basis.

The three-day tournament at the Andheri Sports Complex in north Bombay, will see bigger balls being used for the first time. "For the first time we will be using bigger balls, 40 mm, in what is the second biggest tournament in Asia, next only to Asian Championship," Tipnis said. "We will also be using tables with wheels approved by the International Table Tennis Federation," he added.