Top eight seeds in boys and girls sections sailed into the pre-quarters of the Indian Oil Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships at the Municipal Corporation Indoor Stadium here Saturday.
Reeth Rishya, who is the top seed in junior girls, was made to sweat by Kerala’s unseeded Seraha Jacob before the PSPB girl won 3-2 in the second round of the youth girls category.
Most of second round matches in youth boys section turned out to be just a formality. There were some tough ones too. Sanmay Paranjape of Maharashtra A struggled to beat Ravi Joshi of Gujarat 3-2, his teammate Shubhankar Renavikar overcame a strong Rohan Joshi from Madhya Pradesh, also winning 3-2, Karnataka’s Shreyal Telang downed Delhi’s Utkarsh Gupta 3-2 and West Bengal’s Sayantan Dey defeated Zubin Taraporewalla of Maharashtra B with identical scoreline.
In junior girls, Andhra’s Naina dropped a game but overcame a stubborn Jagruti Murbadkar of Maharashtra B to win 3-1. The Andhra girl also accounted for PSPBA’s Anona Agarwal 3-0 to enter the round of 16. PSPB-A’s Dwijal Trivedi struggled before beating Haryana’s Gunkirat 3-1 in the first round only to lose in the second to West Bengal’s Priyadarshani Das 3-2. Gujarat’s Frenaz Chipia overcame Andhra’s Akshi Sancheti in the decider.
The junior boys’ matches had some elements of surprises when lesser-known players extended their better-known rivals.
West Bengal’s Pathikrit Roy had to fight his way back to move ahead with 3-2 victory against Karnataka’s Vedanth M Urs. So did Ravindra Kotiyan of Maharashtra -A against Shivam Singh for an 3-2 verdict. But the two were stopped in the second round by their opponents.
PSPBA’s Surojit Das had to play his best in the second round to outsmart a determined Asif Haque of Orissa 3-2. Teammate Birdie Boro allowed Bhavesh Apte of Chandigarh one game before wrapping it up 3-1 and Nishaad Shah of Maharashtra B trounced KR Rohit of Tamil Nadu in five games. Delhi ‘s Sabhaya Virmani lost to West Bengal’s Anirban Ghosh after leading 2-0.