Hyderabad’s Akula Sreeja targets national title of Table Tennis Championship

Hyderabad: The 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championship which began on Monday in Shillong, Meghalaya is officially the final tournament before the team for the Commonwealth Games, which will be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8, will be announced. Hyderabad table tennis player Akula Sreeja is eyeing the title in […]

Hyderabad: The 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championship which began on Monday in Shillong, Meghalaya is officially the final tournament before the team for the Commonwealth Games, which will be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8, will be announced.

Hyderabad table tennis player Akula Sreeja is eyeing the title in the nationals to prove her mettle and get into the Indian table tennis team. “This is most probably the final tournament before the Commonwealth Games as there are no other tournaments lined up. The selection process for the Commonwealth Games is not clear yet. They might take the national and international ranking points into account to select the team. However, my focus right now is to win gold at the nationals,” said Sreeja who left for the event on Tuesday along with her coach Somnath Ghosh.

The 23-year-old Reserve Bank of India (RBI) employee is currently ranked No.1 in the country and is confident of making it to the national side. “I am 90 per cent confident of the selection for the Commonwealth Games. But right now I am focused on winning the gold here. This is the final tournament of the calendar and I want to become national champion. I am not thinking about anything else right now,” she added.

Sreeja will represent RBI in singles and doubles with Ayhika Mukherjee and is oozing confidence. She had a week-long camp conducted by veteran paddler Sharath Kamal in Chennai and she said it was a big advantage. “There were top players like Manav Thakkar and other upcoming players at the camp. I got to play with them and my coach (Somnath) was also there and we worked hard on my game. I got to play with Manav and others. It was a very good preparatory camp ahead of the nationals. I then returned to Hyderabad and trained here at our academy (Somnath Ghosh MLR UTT Table Tennis Academy),” added Sreeja who is at 107 in international rankings.

The paddler competed in WTT Contender and WTA Star Contender in Doha recently. Though she failed to impress in singles, she, along with Selenadeepthi Selvakumar, entered the medal round before losing in semis in WTT Contender in Muscat to settle for a bronze medal.

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