Mudit Dani enters main draw of North Zone Table Tennis Championship

Mudit Dani confirmed his berth in the main draw at the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships on Monday. Mudit entered as a TTFI wildcard and became the first paddler to secure his spot.

Mumbaikar Mudit's opponent failed to appear for the opening day of the first-round match, which helped the 21-year-old to sail through to the next round. Delhi’s Parth Virmani, who plays for Central Revenue, failed to turn up for the match.

In the second round, Mudit faced a tough rival, Daman and Diu’s Tushar Chauhan. However, Mudit kept calm and secured his place in the main draw after inching a 9-11, 12-10, 11-8, 5-11, 11-7 win over Tushar.

The opening day comprised of two rounds each for the men and women paddlers respectively at the Tau Devi Lal Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Haryana. The third round will determine the consequences for the 64 men and 40 female table tennis players.

Other paddlers apart from Mudit Dani who sailed through to the next round

Ali Mohammad from Telangana got better of Ravi Joshi of LIC to win his first-round match 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7 in group 16. Meanwhile, Delhi’s Mannit Singh Narang defeated Jignesh Jaiswal 11-8, 11-5, 7-11, 18-20, 11-8.

Anargaya Manjunath, defeated PSPB’s Soumi Mandal, in the first-round match 11-8, 11-9, 11-7 in group 4. Moumita Datta suffered a defeat at the hands of younger compatriot Yashaswini Ghorpade. The RSPB player went down 8-11, 11-9, 9-11, 7-11.

Isha Chavan defeated Riti Shankar 3-1, Aarthi Chaudhary cruised past Manasi Chiplunkar 3-1, and Sanchita Chatterjee overpowered Vanshika Bhargava 3-2. Meanwhile, Shubha Bhat defeated Trisha Gogoi 3-2.

Barring the aforementioned matches, Indian veteran table tennis player Sharath Kamal along with 15 other men will step onto the court during the main draw matches on Tuesday. Reigning national champions Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra have opted out of the event.