Horrid day for seeds in U-17 girls category at North Zone National Ranking Table tennis tournament

Seeded U-17 girls players had a horrid outing on the second day of the National Ranking North Zone Table Tennis Championships on Monday. Fourth seed Sayali Wani of Maharashtra, fifth seed Pranati P. Nair of Kerala, sixth seed Karuna Gajendra of Karnataka, and seventh seed M. Hansini of Tamil Nadu fell by the wayside in the youth U-17 girls category.

Unseeded Nandini Sahab of West Bengal began on the wrong foot in the Round of 32 but managed to pull through in the last three games to upstage the Maharashtra player.

Pranati lost the first game but rebounded to win the next against Avani Tripathi. But the latter turned the tables on her as the UP table tennis player won the third and fourth games to move into the pre-quarterfinals.

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Delhi’s Riddhima Kapoor, without wasting time, simply put it across an off-color Karuna in straight games.

Tamil Nadu player Hansini, meanwhile, fought hard to stay in the match until her opponent Srijita Shaw from Bengal claimed the last two points after deuce to progress to the next round.

Seeds fare better in U-17 boys category at the North Zone Table Tennis Championships

In the youth U-17 boys category, only the eighth-seeded Sarth Mishra from Uttar Pradesh failed to enter the pre-quarterfinals, while the other seeds made it without any hiccups.

Qualifier K.J. Aakash of Karnataka, who began confidently after winning the first game on extended points, could not be stopped from entering the last-16 stages despite the eighth seed managing to win the second game.

Earlier in the day, all the eight seeds in the youth U-17 boys category sailed into the second round.

However, second seed Aadarsh Om Chetri and seventh seed P.B. Abhinand struggled before going through to the second round.

The Delhi table tennis player won 11-6, 9-11, 11-2, 11-7 against Telangana’s Trishul Mehra. Abhinand dropped two games against Amish Athwale of PSPBA.

The Tamil Nadu table tennis player led 2-0 before the PSPBA ace bounced back to take the next two games. However, in the decider, Abhinand upped the ante to triumph 11-8, 11-4, 6-11, 5-11, 11-5.