The doubles format in table tennis has long been neglected by players, officials and the media alike. That might change, if the Table Tennis Federation of India is to be believed.
For the first time, TTFI has introduced prize money for the doubles, men’s, women’s and mixed, in the Senior National championships here, in a bid to get more players to take part.
“We are doing this as an experiment, but if successful we plan to include it in the National ranking tournaments for the forthcoming season,” said Dhanraj Choudhary, Secretary, TTFI. “Earlier, there used to be many walkovers in doubles, this time there has only been five,” he added.
With India winning a gold and silver in the men’s doubles event of the 2010 ommonwealth Games in Delhi and ’14 in Glasgow respectively, TTFI has woken up to the importance of doubles. “Doubles is important, having equal status as singles. Every time importance has been given to singles only. We are planning to include ranking points for doubles for the National rankings events and we might even send the doubles National champions of the next edition for ITTF Pro Tours,” Dhanraj said.
Actually, the prize money started with the All-India inter-institution tournament in August last year. The winner and runner-up in the doubles—men, women and mixed—events here will receive Rs. 17,000 and Rs. 11, 000.
Meanwhile, the mixed doubles final to be held on Friday will pit the pair of RBI’s Raj Mondal-Krittwika Sinha Roy and Sourav Saha-Mousumi Paul of West Bengal.
The results (Semifinals): Raj Mondal & Krittwika Sinha Roy (RBI) bt Sivananda Seshadri & N. Vidya (TN) 11-5, 11-9, 11-9; Sourav Saha & Mousumi Paul (WB) bt Aman Balgu & Pooja Sahasrabudhe (Mah ‘A’) 13-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6.
