Sreeja Akula, Manika Batra highest-seeded Indian players at Olympics

NEW DELHI: Sreeja Akula (16th) and Manika Batra (18th) are the highest-seeded Indian players at the Paris 2024 Olympics table tennis tournament, which begins on July 27.

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) revealed the seedings on Tuesday. A total of 67 players are seeded in each of the men's and women's singles competitions, while 16 teams each are seeded for both team events, as per a release by Olympics.com.

Last month, Sreeja Akula reached a career-best No. 24 in the world table tennis rankings, displacing Manika Batra as India's top women's singles player.

The 25-year-old Sreeja, a two-time national champion, became the first Indian table tennis player to win a WTT Contender singles title at Lagos in June. Partnering with Archana Kamath, she also bagged the doubles title.

World No. 28 Manika Batra, meanwhile, is seeded only two places below her compatriot at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

A former Commonwealth Games champion, Manika made the Saudi Smash women's singles quarterfinal in May, becoming the first Indian singles table tennis player to reach the last eight of a WTT Grand Smash event. Manika will be making her third straight appearance in the Olympics.

Sharath Kamal is set to make his fifth Olympic appearance. The two-time Commonwealth Games men's singles champion is seeded 24th at the Paris 2024 Olympics. At Tokyo 2020, the 41-year-old veteran was ousted in the third round, his best finish at the Olympic Games to date.

National champion Harmeet Desai, ranked 86th in the world in men's singles, is seeded 49th. He will make his Olympic debut.

Meanwhile, India will debut in the team table tennis events at the upcoming Olympics, where the four singles players will be joined by Manav Thakkar (men's team) and Archana Kamath (women's team).

Both the men's and women's team events were introduced to the Olympic programme at Beijing in 2008.

Seeded 14th at Paris 2024, the Indian men's table tennis team is among the top five Asian teams. Manika Batra and Co. are seeded 11th in the women's team event.

All six Indian table tennis players made the cut for Paris 2024 via their world rankings. There is no Indian representation in the mixed doubles tournament, the release added.

Table tennis at the Paris 2024 Olympics will be conducted between July 27 and August 10. All five competitions - men's singles, women's singles, mixed doubles, men's team and women's team - will be played at the South Paris Arena.