Arnav, Jashan make the cut

Tribune News Service 

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Panchkula, July 5

Chandigarh paddlers Arnav Aggarwal and Jashan Antal topped their respective groups to qualify for the main draw in the boys’ sub-junior competition on the opening day of the National Ranking Table Tennis Championship (North Zone) at Tau Devi Lal Stadium here on Thursday.   

Arnav blanked Lekhendro Singh Kshetrimayum of Manipur 11-3 11-6 11-7 before getting a walkover against Himachal Pradesh’s Ritvik Rana. In his last group match, he registered a comfortable 11-8 11-7 11-7 win over Assam’s Ahnik Gautam Bhattacharjya to earn six points and top the group. 

Antal, on the other hand, had to fight it out against Madhya Pradesh’s Kartikey Kaushik in his opening match of the day. The Chandigarh paddler lost the first game 7-11, but came back strongly to draw level with an 11-9 win in the second.   

Kaushik, though, regained the lead with an 11-6 win in the third game. But Antal kept his cool and won the remaining two games 11-8 11-5 to seal the match 3-2.

Antal was awarded a walkover against Bihar’s Shwet Raj before he packed off Rajasthan’s Krish Bissa 11-5 11-6 11-8 to top the group with six points and secure a place in the main draw.       

Chandiagrh’s Vishal Garg, Harkeerat Singh, Guneet Singh, Divyang Sharma, Krish Gupta and Shaurya Mehndiratta failed to make the cut.

Girls stumble

Chandigarh girls came a cropper as none of them was able to clear the qualifying round. Pelf showed promise but lost to West Bengal’s Diya Bramhachary in a three-way tie to make an early exit from the tournament.          

Pelf started the day with an 11-8 11-8 9-11 7-11 11-9 win over Andhra Pradesh’s Phalgun Charvi and consolidated her position with an 11-8 11-4 8-11 10-12 11-6 win against Mauli Sharma of Rajasthan. She, however, lost her last match 6-11 7-11 8-11 to finish the group stage with five points and share the lead with Phalgun and Diya, who eventually made it to the main draw on basis of better victory margin. 

Himanshi Sharma also fought well, but a loss to Swetapadma Dalai of Odisha proved costly for her as she missed a spot in the main draw by just a single point. 

Sneha Singh, Manal Antal, Himani Sharma and Deevanshi Chawla failed to make an impression.

TN, WB boys shine

Meanwhile, six boys from Tamil Nadu made it to the main draw of the sub-junior category on the first day of the tournament.  

Varun Ganesh led the pack with a dominating performance in Group 1, while Jay Gadiya won both his matches hands down to top Group 4. Anuj Mahipal, Tharun Shanmugam, Ayyan Balu Selvam and Roopan Santhoesh also advanced to the main draw, where they will join state mates Preyesh Raj Suresh, Vishwa Deenadayalan and Karthikeyan Kamaraj, who were given a direct entry into the first round on basis of their rankings. 

West Bengal did not lag behind and their paddlers, too, put up a great challenge to prove their superiority with six of them making it to the next stage.

PSPB Academy, which is rebuilding with the appointment of a new coach from Egypt, witnessed two of its players — Khelendrajit Yengkhom and Aaradhya Sharma — qualify for the main draw.

Maharashtra, as usual, had a fair spread of their players with eight of them making it to main draw.