Former World Youth Championships bronze medalist Payas Jain, Asian Games 2022 men’s doubles quarter-finalist Manush Shah, and 37th National Games champion Archana Kamath are among the eight Indian players who received wildcard entries in the singles main draw of the 2024 WTT Star Contender Goa.
The tournament which is set to start from Tuesday at the Peddem Indoor Stadium in Mapusa, Goa.
In addition to Jain, Shah, and Kamath, former world No 1 in U-19 girls’ doubles Suhana Saini and Snehit Suravajjula are the other two Indian players who have also been handed wildcards at the second edition of India’s biggest international table tennis tournament.
Among foreign players, Suh Hyo-Won stands out as a prominent name to have received a wild card entry. Suh won the bronze medal for South Korea at the 2019 Team World Cup and is a women’s World Cup quarter-finalist.
Former world champions in mixed doubles, Yang Ha Eun, and the World No. 79 Yang Wang from Slovakia are the other two foreign paddlers who have been granted wildcards.
Out of the 12 wildcard entries in the singles main draw, eight have been handed wildcards by the host association while the other four have secured their wildcard entries through WTT nominations.
Anirban Ghosh, who recently won the doubles title at the 85th National Table Tennis Championships, joins the former South Asian Junior Championships silver medalist Jeet Chandra, world No 70 South Korea’s Lee Eunhye and India’s Anjali Rohilla in the list of players who have obtained wildcard entries through WTT nominations.
The prestigious tournament will be headlined by top global stars including the world No 6 Hugo Calderano, the last edition’s runner-up Cheng I-Ching, former world No 1 and two-time Olympics bronze medallist Dimitrij Ovtcharov (WR 13) along with top Indian stars such as Achanta Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.