WTT Contender Budapest: G Sathiyan, Manika Batra return to action post Tokyo Olympics - watch live

Indian table tennis players Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra will resume their season after the Tokyo Olympics at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender Budapest in Hungary next week.

Starting from 2021, WTT,  the global governing body for table tennis, hosts two tiers of tournaments - the WTT Star Contender (the higher tier) and the WTT Contender (the lower tier). The WTT Contender Budapest will be the first WTT event to be hosted in Europe.

World No. 39 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran made his Olympics debut in Tokyo, where he bowed out in the second round to Hong Kong’s Lam Siu-Hang.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran will be one of the title contenders at the WTT Contender Budapest alongside Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri (world No. 21), England’s Liam Pitchford (world No. 14) and Benedikt Duda (world No. 42) of Germany.

Manika Batra will lead the women’s challenge for India. The two-time national champion became the first female Indian table tennis player to make it to the Round of 32 at Tokyo 2020 - where she lost to Austria’s Sofia Polcanova.

The Indian table tennis player is ranked world No. 60 and should be a frontrunner for the Budapest title, competing with Xiaoxin Yang (world No. 44) of Monaco and Slovakia’s Barbora Balazova (world No. 53).

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra have also paired up for the mixed doubles at the WTT Contender Budapest, with an eye on playing together at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

A number of young Indian players will also be playing in the WTT Contender Budapest. Former top-ranked juniors Manav Thakkar and Archana Kamath along with Mudit Dani, Sreeja Akula and Diya Chitale will be aiming to make the main draw of the singles and doubles events.

Indian table tennis squad for WTT Contender Budapest

Men’s Singles

Main Draw - Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai

Qualifiers - Manav Thakkar, Mudit Dani, Sanil Shetty, Jeet Chandra, Snehit Suravajjula, Manush Shah

Women’s Singles

Main Draw - Manika Batra

Qualifiers - Archana Kamath, Sreeja Akula, Selena Selvakumar, Diya Chitale, Swastika Ghosh, Reeth Tennison

Men’s Doubles

Main Draw - Manav Thakkar/Harmeet Desai; Sanil Shetty/Snehit Suravajjula

Qualifiers - Jeet Chandra/Manush Shah

Women’s Doubles

Qualifiers - Reeth Tennison/Archana Kamath; Selena Selvakumar/Sreeja Akul

Mixed Doubles

Main Draw - Sathiyan Gnanasekaran/Manika Batra; Manav Thakkar/Archana Kamath

WTT Contender Budapest schedule

Qualifiers: Sunday, August 15 - Monday, August 16

Main Draw: Tuesday, August 17 - Friday, August 20

Where to watch WTT Contender Budapest table tennis live in India?

Live streaming of the WTT Contender Budapest will be on World Table Tennis’ official YouTube channel.