BTTA to host Eastern Zonal National TT Championship

kolkata: the bengal table tennis association (btta) is going to host the eastern zonal national ranking table tennis championship for the seventh consecutive year here at the kshudiram anushilan kendra from july 29 to august 2. the tournament kicks off the ttfi calendar this season, and all the big names of indian table tennis are participating here.former india no. 1 arup basak, who has just served his six-month suspension period, will be seen in action here as an unseeded player. soumaydeep roy of pscb, current national champion, is the top seed in men's singles in this tournament while n.r indu, also from pscb, is the top seed in the women's singles. over 300 players from all over the country will take part in the six different events : men, women, boys, girls, sub-junior boys and sub-junior girls. however, there will be no cadet section this time. "in a peculiar decision, ttfi has withdrawn cadet events from the zonal competitions from this year," informed ashis dutta, secretary of btta at a press conference on thursday dutta also informed that the tournament will be conducted by the new rules, implemented by the international body of table tennis : ittf. as per the new rule, the games will be of 11 points instead of 21 points and service will be changing hands after every two points instead of five points earlier. "the men and women's singles matches will be decided in this tournament on the best of seven games basis, while it will be a five game affair in other sections till pre-quarters," dutta informed. the tournament will be see bigger balls : 40mm orange colour nttaku ball. this is for the first time that btta might fail to make both ends meet as far as the expenses of this tournament is concerned. the btta secretary informed that the budget of this meet is around rs 5 lakh whereas servo, title sponsors has agreed to foot rs 50,000. "there are several co-sponsors and we have so far been able to gather around rs 2.5 lakhs," dutta informed. however, negotiation is still going on to pursue servo for a hike in the budget. the winner in the men's singles will get a purse of rs 30,000 while women's singles champion will be richer by rs 15,000. seedings: men's singles: 1. soumaydeep roy 2. subhajit saha 3. s. raman 4. sibaji dutta 5. ranabir das 6. chetan baboor 7. sourav chakraborty 8. bhusan thakur. women's singles: 1. n.r.indu 2.poulomi ghatak 3. mouma das 4. m.s. mythili 5. anindita chakraborty 6. mantu ghosh 7. kasturi chakraborty 8. mallika parekh.