Reeling under two back-to-back defeats to National champion A. Amalraj this season, defending champion Sharath Kamal will be looking to settle scores when the star-studded Petroleum inter-unit table tennis meet opens at the Thyagraj Stadium here on Friday.
The two players may come face to face during the two-day team event or the individual events that follow. The men's team event, with seven units in the fray, will be played on a league-cum-knockout basis. The five-team women's event will be a round-robin affair.
In the men's singles, the top-eight ranked players will join the eight qualifiers following a ‘mini' competition, in the pre-quarterfinals. Due to less number of entries in the women's section, singles will be played on a knockout basis.
Last year, Indian Oil won the team championships. K. Shamini, the recently-dethroned National champion, won the women's title.
The teams:
Men: Indian Oil, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Oil India, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, Engineers India and Gas Authority of India.
Women: Indian Oil, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Oil India, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.
