Indore, September 26, 2016: With only two rounds scheduled
in men’s and women’s singles first stage matches on the opening day some of the
top names in the women’s section, more or less, sealed their main draw places
in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships
starts at the Abhay Prashal here today. However, a confirmation will come only tomorrow.
In women’s singles, most players in the latter groups completed
two rounds and their safe passage into the main draw will now depend on the
last match as only the group topper moves up. West Bengal’s Manisha Mukherjee
in group 32 scored two clear wins but had to struggle against Delhi ’s Kritika Malik. Manisha won 13-11,
6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 12-10. With that loss, Kritika is tied in second position
with Maharashtra’s Srushti Haleangadi who, like the Delhi girl, has 1-1 record and the match
between the two is more of an academic interest only.
The others that had collected four points and are just a
step away from qualification and they are Iti Sharma (HP), Harshavardhini
(AAI), Sanya Sehgal (Har), Archana Kamath (AAI), Maria Rony (Kerala), Anuska
Dutta (RSPB), Mansi Dshpande (Mah), Priyadarshini Das (WB), Sreeja Akula (AAI),
Selenadeepthi Selvakumar (TN), Moumita Datta (WB), Ritika Kundu (NB), Takeme
Sarkar (RSPB), Sukanya Bose (RSPB), Priti Mokashi (Mah), Saswati Ghosh (MP),
Manushree Patil (Mah) and Ashlesha Trehan (RSPB). All these players have a
third-round match tomorrow before the knockout phase begins.
Local girl Saswati Ghosh, who is making her maiden
appearance for MP, made an impressive start beating Rutuja Khopkar of
Maharashtra 7-11, 11-4, 11-4, 13-11 but found a big hurdle in West
Bengal ’s Mrittika Halder which the former had to cross. And the MP
girl did that with a hard-fought 3-2 (7-11, 11-5, 4-11, 11-5, 11-6) to post two
crucial wins. She has a match against No. 1 player in her group 21, Rupsa
Bhattacharya of Railways, who is lying behind, having lost her second match to West Bengal rival Mrittika 2-3.
Similarly, the fight for top spot in group 22 will be
between Sukanya Bose of Railways and Priti Mokashi of Maharashtra
as they have two wins each and their direct showdowntomorrow will decide
the group leader. Priti had a tough time against Riya Dutta of West Bengal before subduing her 11-7, 11-9, 12-14, 17-15,
the last two games went into several deuces.
Three AAI girls—Selenadeepthi, Sreeja and Archana—held on to
their top group positions so far but tomorrow can be a different day
for both Moumita Datta from West Bengal and Selenadeepthi in group 24. But for
Akula, who scored 3-1, 3-0 triumphs over Tanaya Dutta and Sumana Saha in group
25, and Archana, who defeated Koumudi Patankar of Karnataka 3-0 and got a
walkover from Sangita Mahadani of West Bengal ,
the passage seems easy now.
But in the men’s singles, the group toppers are yet to play
their second round matches for a clear picture to emerge in Stage 1. But
indications are that there will hardly be any disappointment on this count as
they are expected to go through, leaving the second spots to lesser players in
their respective groups.
Meanwhile, the top eight ranked players—Suthirtha Mukherjee,
who is sure to get the top seeding, Madhurika Patkar, Pooja Sahasrabuddhe,
Mouma Das, Mousumi Paul, Shruti Amrute, Manika Batra and Krittwika Sinha
Roy—have been given direct main draw entry will begin their campaign from tomorrow when
the group qualifiers join them.
Even as the men and women players get a breather after two
rounds, the Junior Boys will play a couple of rounds to wind up the day’s
proceedings.
TTFI release
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