Sreeja Akula required to play qualifiers at UTT National Ranking event

Sreeja Akula, India’s women’s captain for the Asian Games and ranked No. 57 in the world, completed a final qualification-round match at The Sportz Hub in Kanpur on August 21, 2026, winning to enter the main draw of the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis tournament.

The decision to have Sreeja start in the qualifiers prompted criticism from some former players despite her own lack of objection to playing through qualifying. Former international Sunil Babras, now a coach with the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, said: "It is ridiculous to see India’s top player being made to play the qualifiers," while competition manager N. Ganesan said the technical team was "merely following the tournament prospectus". The prospectus, based on a TTFI AGM decision in July 2024, stipulates that players ranked in the "ITTF top 50 at the time of the first draw" receive the top seeding, with the remaining seeding determined by the "latest national rankings"; the top 16 players in the domestic rankings are then seeded accordingly. Sreeja’s domestic ranking had slipped to No. 27 after injuries and international commitments restricted her participation only to the Senior Nationals during the previous season.

Minutes before the Under-17 boys’ and girls’ finals on August 21, Sreeja was finishing her qualification match against Shivasri S., making short work of the opponent to move into the main draw. After the match she returned to the gallery to support Somnath Ghosh’s protégé, Vivaan Dave, in the Under-17 boys’ final. The article accompanying the event included a photo credited to Amol Karhadkar of Sreeja serving in that final qualification round.

The occurrence is not unprecedented: A. Sharath Kamal began the 2021 edition from the qualifiers and went on to win the title. Sreeja, however, expressed no qualms about starting from the qualifiers despite being India’s highest-ranked women’s player present at the tournament. Competition organisers pointed to the seeding mechanism adopted after the TTFI AGM as the reason for the placement.

Under-17 boys’ results: Final — Vivaan Dave (Guj) bt Atharva Nawarange (Kar) 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4. Semifinals — Vivaan bt Vishruth Ramakrishnan (TN) 11-7, 10-12, 11-8, 11-7; Atharva bt Prateek Tulsani (Mah) 7-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8.

Under-17 girls’ results: Final — Divyanshi Bhowmick (Mah) bt Ananya Muralidharan (TN) 11-6, 9-11, 12-10, 11-3. Semifinals — Divyanshi bt Ankolika Chakraborty (WB) 14-12, 11-8, 11-4; Ananya bt Naisha Rewaskar (Mah) 5-11, 16-14, 11-9, 10-12, 11-8.

Sreeja’s victory in the qualification round secured her place in the main draw of the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis tournament.