Jodhpur, September 25, 2012: Even as qualifiers struggled to
find their feet in the junior boys and girls sections, respectively, 32 boys
and 24 girls made the cut to qualify for the main draw of the at the National
Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Gaushala Indoor Hall
here today.
They will now get a chance to rub shoulders with the
top-ranked players, but what surprised everyone were the many walkovers in both
the sections. They were, however, not explained by the technical officials but
it remained a concern for both the organizers as well as the Table Tennis
Federation of India (TTFI), particularly at a time when the national selectors
are going to be present here to choose the probable paddlers for the World
Junior Championships, to be held in Hyderabad
later this year.
The TTFI, obviously piqued at the attitude of players, is
contemplating imposing some penalty on them and, in due course of time, writing
to the states affiliates and institutions.
Nevertheless, some of the matches were of high intensity in
value with quite a few of them going down to the wire. Still in a few other
matches, the also-rans managed to take a game off their better-known opponents
to boost their confidence. But, as in the sub-junior and Cadet sections, one
could not witness any kind of domination from a particular state or
institution.
Ten paddlers from West and North Bengal
in the junior boys singles made it to the draw of 64 while more institution
girls hogged the limelight in the junior girls section. The rest of the places
were shared by states like Maharashtra, Rajastha, Tamil Nadu, UP and
institutions like PSPB
Academy
With the main draw matches for the junior boys scheduled for
later tonight—the girls players their matches tomorrow—the attention was
riveted on some of the third-round matches in both the sections. For instance,
Subhendu Show from West Bengal , who was
stretched by S.Nikhil of Tamil Nadu, won 9-11, 11-8, 10-12, 12-10, 11-3 to make
the cut.
However, Vijay Singh Patil of Maharashtra
was not so lucky despite beating Sandeep Choudhary of UP 9-11, 9-11, 11-4,
11-3, 12-10 as he failed to qualify. But both Raja Kundu from North
Bengal and Abhinav Belwal from UP made the cut. Kundu beat Tajas
Kamble Of Maharashtra 6-11, 11-6, 13-11, 8-11, 11-6 while Kundu won 8-11, 11-5,
11-8, 13-15, 11-8. Among the junior girls, only Priyadarshani Das, who beat KV
Vaishali of AP, 9-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 entered the main draw.
But for these matches, the rest of them were more or less
one-sided affairs for the regulars on the circuit.
A TTFI Press release
No comments:
Post a Comment