Thane, November 14: Paddlers in top six groups hardly dropped a sweat as they retained their position to move into the main draw of Sub-Junior Girls in the 11Sports National Ranking Championships (West) for the Mayor Cup at the Dadoji Konddev Stadium here today.
Tisha Kohli of Delhi, Kavyashree Baskar of Tamil Nadu, Radhapriya Goel of UP, Cathrin Tina Dass of Tamil Nadu, Sharmitha Srinivasan, also of Tamil Nadu, and Pritha Vartikar of Maharashtra easily beat their group rivals. There were similar results in some other groups, too, except for some topsy-turvy outcomes in a few where the group toppers were sent packing.
For instance, Delhi’s Tamanna Gulshan, who is ranked in the 9-16 brackets, could not take the advantage of the walkover of a player from her group and lost the only match that she had to play against Sayali Wani of Maharashtra as the latter won 12-10, 11-5, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9 in group 7.
In group 8, Meghana Karandikar of Maharashtra toppled Fatema Kadri of Gujarat in straight games to enter the main draw, courtesy the lone win and a walkover from the third player. In Group 17, Aafrien Murad of Gujarat beat both the No. 1 and No. 2 players, Sucheta Prosad of West Bengal 3-0 and then accounted for Sayali Baxi of Maharashtra 3-1 to advance. In group 19, Ratnabali Pathak of West Bengal did a similar act against Taniya Patil of Goa, beating her 3-1 and then downing Poonam Yadav of Maharashtra in straight games.
In group 22, Aneeha D’Souza of Maharashtra entered the main draw after accounting for the top two players Sania Bhowmick of North Bengal (3-0) and Kaashvi Gupta of Delhi (3-1). There were other upsets when Sampada Bhiwandkar of Maharashtra, Aditi Joshi of Karnataka and Kalyani Dhinesh, also of Karnataka, surprised the group leaders to make it a memorable outing for them.
It will be a draw of 64 in both the Sub-Junior Boys and Girls categories with the top eight ranked players getting at least byes in the first round. The third round matches, currently on, will decide which of the 32 boys who will make the cut.
Meanwhile, the Cadet Boys and Girls group matches get underway from tomorrow.
Important results:
Sub-junior Girls Qualifying: Group 7: Sayali Wani (MHR) bt Gulshan Tamanna (DLI) 12-10, 11-5, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9;Group 8: Meghana Karandikar (MHR) bt Fatema Kadri (GUJ) 12-10, 11-9 11-8; Group 17: Aafrien Murad (GUJ) bt Sucheta Prosad (WB) 5-11, 13-11, 12-10, 11-7; Group 19: Ratnabali Pathak (WB) bt Taniya Patil (GOA) 11-4, 10-12, 11-7, 13-11; Group 22: Aneeha D’Souza (MAH) bt Kaashvi Gupta (DLI) 4-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-3; Group 23: Taneesha Kotecha (MHR) bt Nehal Venkatasamy (TN) 11-5, 11-3, 11-13, 10-12, 13-11; Group 25: Sneha Bhowmick (WB) bt Vartica Bharat (UP) 11-5, 10-12, 11-4, 12-10; Group 26: Sampada Bhiwandkar (MHR) bt Spriha Devanath (WB) 11-8, 11-6, 11-13, 11-7; Group 29: Aditi Joshi (KNT) bt Kavisha Parekh (GUJ) 11-6, 11-6, 11-13, 11-3; Group 30: Kalyani Dhinesh (KNT) bt Anoushka Chatterjee (GUJ) 11-6, 12-10, 11-7.
