Top players cruise at TT nationals

With eight seeded players yet to make an appearance, former national champions like Poulami Ghatak and Mouma Das had a field day in women singles on the opening day of the National Ranking Championships (North) table tennis tournament at the Gautam Buddha University hall as they entered the main draw here on Monday.

Even as they played their role to perfection, the upcoming players did not have it as easy but made the main draw cut, thanks to the new system which allows two qualifiers to make the grade.

As many as 18 benefited from this after they had to fight hard against some juniors.

But the group matches that went down to the wire included in Group 3 when Mousumi Paul of the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) had to overcome stiff resistance from Aanchal Malhotra of Delhi before carving out a 6-11, 11-2, 6-11, 11-5, 11-8 win.

But Aanchal too progressed, because of a walkover in her group despite losing her only group match.

Soumi Mondal was another PSPB girl who had to fight for the second slot as she defeated Trisha Gogoi of Assam, a junior girl, who won her maiden title in the East Zone. Soumi won 9-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-13, 9-11 in Group 10.

Manushree Patil of Airports Authority of India had a tough game against Maharashtra's Senhora D'Souza but the former justified her top position in Group 17 with a 11-4, 13-15, 10-12, 11-7, 11-8 verdict. Senhora, who had accounted for two other group players easily captured the second spot in the group and qualified for the next stage.

--IANS

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