Gandhidham: Three Gujarat paddlers-Harmeet Desai, Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar-were on the flight that carried the Indian table tennis team to take part in the 2023 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals which will commence in Durban, South Africa from Saturday.
The 29-year-old Harmeet who is world no. 136 will have his task cut out against world no. 59 Thiago Apolonia of Portuguese in the first round.
Meanwhile, Vadodara-boy Manush will be debuting in World Championships Finals and the 22-year-old southpaw (world no. 152) will clash with South Korean Cho Seungmin, World ranked 49, in the opening-round match.
Surat-boy Manav, along with his mixed doubles partner Archana Kamath, will take on the Puerto Rican pair of Daniel Gonzalez and Melaina Diaz in the first round.
Indian team:
Mens Team:
1. Sharath Kamal
2. G. Sathiyan
3. Harmeet
4. Manush
Womens Team:
1. Manika Batra
2. Sreeja Akula
3. Reeth Rishya
4. Sutirtha Mukherjee
Mix Doubles:
Manav Thakkar & Archana Kamath
