Reigning national champion Soumyajit Ghosh is seeded second behind G. Sathiyan in the ongoing Inter-Institutional Table Tennis Championships at the Thyagraj Stadium here.
Ghosh, who missed a few zonal events last year, could muster only 320 points, which includes the 180 points he collected at the Puducherry nationals. But Sathiyan, who had a roaring season last year, including three zonal titles and the runner-up finish at the nationals, garnered 480 points to earn the top-seed position here.
But both Sathiyan and Ghosh, along with six other seeds, have been given first-round byes and they will be seen in action from the second round.
Meanwhile, 48 qualifiers from as many groups have made it to the main draw, which includes former national champion Anthony Amalraj.
Interestingly, the Lucknow nationals champion Amalraj had to play the qualifiers as he had skipped most of last season, owing his commitment with a club in Poland, and was ranked 37-way behind several junior players. He had just 20 points in his kitty for his token appearance in the team event of last edition's Inter-Institutional Championships here.
Devesh Karia, who had a fine season in 2014 with two singles crown, is seeded after Ghosh at No. 3 while Abhishek Yadav is seeded No. 4. They are followed in seeding by Lalrin Puia, Sanil Shetty, Subhajit Saha and Raj Mondal, in that order.
With 24 group leaders joining the top eight seeds, the main draw of the women's singles will be of 32 players. But they will play their first round only tomorrow.
As for women's singles seeding, national champion Mouma Das is No. 1 with Pooja Sahasrabudhe, who was a semifinalist at Puducherry, is seeded second. Runner-up Poulami Ghatak, who had sent in her entry, withdrew later.
The other players seeded behind Pooja include Ankita Das, Manika Batra, Krittwika Sinha Roy, Reeth Rishya and Madhurika Patkar.
