With few months left until Tokyo Olympics, qualification events are underway. The table tennis qualification is also about to get over with final few tournaments left. Till now, no Indian players has qualified for Tokyo Olympics. Let us look at what qualification opportunities lie ahead of them…
There are going to be 5 events in Table Tennis at Tokyo Olympics. Let us look at Indian qualification chance in each of them..
Men’s Team Event: India has missed its opportunity to qualify for Men’s team event. India came very close to qualification at the World Team qualification event in January 2020 but missed it by a very fine margin.
Women’s Team Event: Same is the case with women’s team event. They missed the golden chance to qualify in last year’s tournament.
Men’s Singles: There are going to be 64 entries in the singles event. Most of the quotas have already been filled. Indian paddlers have final 2 opportunities to qualify in the upcoming World’s Singles qualification event and Asian Olympic qualifiers. There are 4 quotas available in World qualification event and another 5 in Asian qualification event. Both Sharath Kamal & Sathiyan Gnanasekaran would fancy their chance at qualifying through these 2 events.
Women’ Singles: There are 64 entries in the women’s Singles event as well. Indian players have final 2 opportunities to qualify. The difference between World Men’s qualifiers and Women’s qualifier is that there are 5 quota places available in Women’s Singles at World qualification event and another 5 in Asian qualifiers. Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee will look to qualify through these 2 tournaments.
Mixed Doubles: There are going to be 16 mixed doubles teams participating at the Olympics (maximum of one team per country). 7 quota places are already finalized. Some places are going to be given out through continental qualifiers and remaining places will be given based on World Ranking. 1 quota is available at Asian qualifiers and Indian pair of Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra will look to seal it. Indian pair has a good chance here.
Indian pair also stands a chance to qualify through the ranking route. Indian pair is currently ranked 19 in the World and can have a shot at qualification through rankings as well.
The good thing is that players from table tennis power houses like China, South Korea, Japan and Germany have already qualified through team routes. So, Indian players have a good chance at both World as well as Asian qualifiers.
The schedule of qualifiers:
World Singles Qualification tournament: 14-17 March
Asian Qualifiers – Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Mixed Doubles – 18-20 Mar
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