Sharath, Madhurika top seeds; Ghosh, Shamini relegated

Achanta Sharath Kamal has been given the top billing in the men's singles event of the 75th Senior National Table Tennis Championships, here.
In the women's section, it will his Petroleum teammate Madhurika Patkar, who has been seeded No.1 thanks to her two title victories at the Gandhidham (Central) and Thanke (West) zonal events earlier this season.
Normally, players are seeded as per the ranking points they accumulate during the domestic events throughout the year but in the case of Sharath, who has not played in a single tournament in India this season, the technical committee considered his world ranking (50) as the basis for the nationals at the Patliputra Sports Complex.

"Since Sharath has been representing India at various IITF pro-tours this season and is the top-ranked Indian in the world, he has been seeded No.1 here," said competition manager Ganeshan N Iyer.
"For other players, we have purely taken into consider their ranking points accrued from the domestic events," he added.
Soumyajit Ghosh, who is the men's singles title-holder, has been seeded fifth behind former national champion Anthony Amal Raj (No.2), Sanil Shetty (No.3) and Harmeet Desai (No.4).

Ghosh, who missed a few zonals, and it reflected in the ranking points he was able to garner this season. Since Ghosh form part of the top-half, he is likely to run into Sharath in the semifinals.

With Madhurika getting the top perch in seeding list, reigning women's champion K Shamini has been pushed down the ladder at No.4 with just 225 points and drawn in the top half.
In fact, Pooja Saharashrabudhe, who has 255 points, is seeded at No.2.
Though both Neha Aggarwal and Ankita Das have 220 points each, the Siliguri girl has been seeded No.3, ahead of her PSPB teammate from Delhi. This would mean that Ankita, along with the other three women, can take it easy with a first-round bye while Neha will have to sweat it out against qualifier Shailoo Noor Basha of Andhra Pradesh.

Unlike the four women, none of the men seeds has been given any luxury of bye in the first round. All top-seeds will have to get down to business straightaway soon after the women's singles main round matches.