Top seeds justify their billings in Junior and Youth National TT

SILIGURI, JANUARY 7, 2012:  Top eight seeds in all sections justified their billing to sail into the pre-quarters of the Indian Oil 73rd Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships here at the Municipal Corporation Indoor Stadium on Saturday. The domination of quality players in singles over those just making up the numbers through qualifications was evident once the latter joined the main draw to meet their fate. 

As for youth girls’ second round, Reeth Rishya, who is the top seed in junior girls, was made to sweat by Kerala’s unseeded Seraha Jacob before the PSPB girl winning it 3-2 (11-5, 3-11, 11-9, 4-11, 11-7). Incidentally, all of Seraha’s matches went to the wire. In the first round she beat Yukti Roshni of Tamil Nadu 12-10, 9-11, 16-18, 11-8, 14-12 while in the junior section, beat Gayatri Talavdekar 11-5, 11-8, 11-13, 8-11, 11-5 in a fight that lasted nearly an hour and a half. Seraha, however, bowed out in the second round, going down tamely 5-11, 2-11, 5-11 to West Bengal ’s Oishwarya Deb.  

Though second round matches in youth boys section turned out to just a formality, some interest was in the round of 64 where Sanmay Paranjape of Maharashtra A struggled to beat Ravi Joshi of Gujarat 3-2, his teammate Shubhankar Renavikar overcame a strong Rohan Joshi from Madhya Pradesh, also winning at 3-2, Karnataka’s Shreyal Telang downed Delhi’s Utkarsh Gupta 12-10, 6-11, 14-12, 6-11, 11-5 and West Bengal’s Sayantan Dey defeated Zubin Taraporewalla of Maharashtra B 3-2.

Andhra’s Naina dropped a game in junior section but overcame a stubborn Jagruti Murbadkar of Maharashtra B to win 13-11, 11-7, 11-13, 11-5. The Andhra girl also accounted for PSPBA’s Anona Agarwal 11-5, 11-6, 11-6 to enter the round of 16. PSPB-A’s Dwijal Trivedi struggled before beating Haryana’s Gunkirat 11-5, 11-3, 7-11, 11-6 in the first round only to lose in the second to West Bengal’s Priyadarshani Das 14-12, 11-9, 5-11,8-11, 2-11. Gujarat ’s Frenaz Chipia overcame Andhra’s Akshi Sancheti 11-8, 8-11, 14-12, 13-15, 11-9.

In comparison, the junior boys’ matches had some elements of surprises when lesser-known players extended their better-known rivals, with the fancied players winning 3-1 in most cases. However, West Bengal ’s Pathikrit Roy had to fight his way back to move ahead with 11-7, 6-11, 11-3, 10-12, 11-4 victory against Karnataka’s Vedanth M Urs. So did Ravindra Kotiyan of Maharashtra -A against Shivam Singh for an 11-7, 3-11, 13-11, 10-12, 11-7 verdict. But the two were stopped in the second round by their opponents.

PSPBA’s Surojit Das had to play his best in the second round to outsmart a determined Asif Haque of Orissa. Das won 11-9, 10-12, 5-11, 11-8, 12-10. Teammate Birdie Boro allowed Bhavesh Apte of Chandigarh one game before wrapping it up 11-6, 5-11, 11-7, 13-12 and Nishaad Shah of Maharashtra B trounced KR Rohit of Tamil Nadu 11-9, 10-12, 12-14, 12-10, 11-7. Delhi ’s Sabhaya Virmani lost to West Bengal ’s Anirban Ghosh 11-8, 13-11, 2-11, 9-11, 9-11 after leading 2-0. But there was no upset of sorts in the second-round games.

TTFI release