TT Tourney Day 2: Paddlers Ananth, Priyanka, Manushree enter main draw

Ananth Devarajan, celebrating his singles entry in the forthcoming World Junior Championships at Cape Town, South Africa, topped his group to enter the men’s singles main draw on the second day of the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships.

Ananth Devarajan, celebrating his singles entry in the forthcoming World Junior Championships at Cape Town, South Africa, topped his group to enter the men’s singles main draw on the second day of the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships.

Paddlers on the second day of national table tennis championship at Abhay Prashal in Indore on Tuesday.(Shankar Mourya/ HT photo)

Drawn in group 23, he blanked out Delhi’s Sameer Sahni 12-10, 13-11, 9-11, 11-5. Ananth and Sameer having won against Saiel Wadwekar from Madhya Pradesh, it was imperative for them to win the crucial match between the two. Ananth emerged triumphant with an emphatic 3-0 win. Earlier, Sameer struggled against local boy Saiel before winning 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5.

In group 24, Sanish Ambekar from Maharashtra pitch-forked himself to the top spot from the third position in the group with two wins over rivals Mohit Verma of Haryana and Subendhu Show from West Bengal. For Sanish, it was easy against the West Bengla paddler but Mohit from Haryana gave some anxious moments as he managed to take a game off Sanish who won 11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-5.

But Airports Authority of India’s Anirban Ghosh failed to qualify from group 31 when he lost his third-round match against Arnab Sarkar 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 10-12, giving a clear main draw passage to the West Bengal player.

Manush Shah from Gujarat, placed in the four-man group 37, emerged on top with three fine wins, his notable 3-0 triumph coming against Akash Nath of West Bengal which paved his way into the second stage. Zubin Taraporwalla from Maharashtra, too, qualified with an all-win record in group 40. Other group qualifiers included Ayush Tayal from Haryana, Shreyas Telang from Karnataka, E. Prabhakaran from RSPB and Asif Haque from RBI. But for these players, all original group toppers had made it to the main draw.

In women’s singles, RBI’s Sweta Parte exited without making an impression, thanks to Railways Ashlesha Trehan who pushed her way into the main draw with a fine 3-0 win. She had earlier beaten Kefira Rodrigues of Goa 3-0. Manushree Patil from Maharashtra beat two of her group rivals in Shreya Ghosh (RSPB) and Assam’s Adrija Sharma to enter the women’s singles stage 2. But for these surprises, all top players expectedly went through the motion to qualify.