Easy for fancied lot but hopefuls struggle

SILIGURI, October 24, 2013: On a hot and humid day, all top players of the country and mostly from the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board had an off day while the qualifiers sweated it out plying at least three rounds each in order to make it to the main draw of the National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships here at the Municipal Indoor Stadium today.

At the end of it all, only 22 women players made the grade and they will join the top ten paddlers —K. Shamini, Pooja Sahasrabudhe, Neha Aggarwal, PoulomiGhatak, Madhurika Patkar, Ankita Das,Anandita Chakraborty, Mousumi Paul, Manika Batra and Krittwika Sinha Roy—all of whom have had better rankings to earn the largesse.

But before they get into action tomorrow, when the main draw in the women’s singles begin, today’s qualifiers—all group toppers—from the 22 groups have had their field day as only the tried and tested qualified. In other words, all the hopefuls in spite of making their best of efforts will have to try their luck out in subsequent championships. The experience of having competed among the best should help them in their endeavor.

Tanaya Dutta, Nikita Ghosh and Sayani Bose were the three qualifiers from North Bengal out of seven participants which included Anushka Dutta, Sagarika Mukherjee, Antra Banerjee and Oishwarya Dev. Even West Bengal, which has a strong platform, failed to throw up many on the firmament as only Suthirtha Mukherjee out of half a dozen players representing the state could enter the main draw. However, many West and North Bengal paddlers representing various institutions did get a chance to go through.

As for the men’s fare, a clear picture will emerge only after the qualification matches in 42 groups will get over later tonight. Only one player from each of the 42 groups will make the cut into the main draw. They will join the top 10 players—Anthony Amalraj, Soumyajit Ghosh, T. Nitin Thiruvengadam, G. Sathiyan, Sourav Saha, Sanil Shetty, Soumyadeep Roy, Suibhajit Saha, Aman Balgu and Sourav  Chakraborty, who are sitting pretty, based on rankings, in the main draw.

The qualifiers: Women: Soumi Mondal (PSPB), Divya Deshpande (PSPB), Suthirtha Mukherjee (WB), Reeth Tennison (PSPB), Mallika Bhandarkar (AI), Mouma Das (PSPB), Nikhat Banu (AAI), Sanya Sehgal (Del), Shreya Ghosh (RSPB), Senhora D’Souza (Mah), Ayhika Mukherjee (AAI), Pallavi Kundu (RSPB), Prajakta Tipale (LIC), Jaita Pushilal (CRSC) Tanaya Dutta (NB), Sukanya Bose (RSPB), Anushree Hazre (RSPB), Nikta Ghosh (NB), Sayani Bose (NB), Frenaz Chipia (Deena Bank), Arul Selvi (Indian Bank) and Tekmi Sarkar (RSPB).

A TTFI Press release