Rajkot: With four days of hectic business in four events—Men, Women, Youth and Junior categories—got over, it was time to concentrate on Sub-Junior and Cadet matches, the qualifying rounds of which began in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (West Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here today.
These two sections normally have a bigger draw but because of the CBSE Cluster events in different states which preceded the championships here meant fewer entries.
Hence, the players in Sub-Junior Girls and Cadet the Boys have been divided into 24 groups. Eight top-ranked players who have been accorded direct entry in the main draw of Sub-Junior Girls will join 24 who qualify from group events to make a draw of 32 in stage 2. With sizable entries in the Sub-Junior Boys, players have been split into 32 groups and their main draw will be of 64 players with 24 byes in Stage 2.
As for the Cadet Boys and Girls, which has 24 and 20 groups respectively, it will be a draw of 32 with liberal byes.
Maharashtra once again led the chart, along with hosts Gujarat, of qualifiers in Sub-Juniors with seven players making the cut—Rajesh Patil Deepit, Karan Kukreja, Hrishikesh Malhtora, Shivam Das, Aryan Panse, Sahil Joshi and Manav Mehta going through. From Gujarat Raval Abhilash, Prathom Madlani, Ayaz Murad, Vidit Desai, Deep Bhandari, Chitra Bhatt and Daviya Parmar made it to Stage 2.
There were quite a few second round matches in the Sub-Junior Boys which went the full distance. For instance, the match between Karan Kukreja of Maharashtra struggled to beat Harshil KKothari of Gujarat 11-8, 6-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-3, Gujarat’s Ayaz Murad defeated PSBA’s Khelendrajit 9-11, 15-13, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6. Manav Mehta, too, had to bring out his best in this round against Rahul Malik of Haryana to win 11-7, 11-5, 7-11, 9-11, 11-7.
In the first round earlier, Karantaka’s Aakash Jagadish had to really play well the decider, which he won on extended points, to beat Darshil Jariwala of Guajrat. The Karnataka lad won 5-11, 11-7, 4-11, 11-9, 12-10. But another Karnataka boy Rathin Suresh Kumar failed to survive against Vidit Desai of Guajrat who won 11-4, 11-7, 5-11, 10-12, 11-6.
In Sub-Junior Girls, Charmi Patel from Guajrat beat Shiropa Routh of North Bengal 11-4, 10-12, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6 in a see-saw first round battle and the experienced Manjunath Anargya of Karnataka struggled before subduing her Maharashtra rival Samruddi Kulkarni 11-7, 10-12, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6.
One round of main draw matches will take place later tonight in the Sub-Junior sections while the Stage 2 matches in Cadet categories will happen tomorrow, the last day of the championships.