Eleven Gujarat players in main draw
GANDHIDHAM, OCT 19: Aafrien Murad became the talk of the town while Ishaan Hingorani gets lucky with a tie as an impressive list of 11 paddlers from Gujarat will be in action at the main draws of UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships 2021 (North Zone) that will be held in Panchkula, Haryana from October 18 to 22.
“It is great news for us that so many players from Gujarat made it to the main draw of the tournament. It speaks volume about the talent that we have and also GSTTA’s humble effort to nurture them. I wish them all the very best and I am sure they will inspire others to excel in coming tournaments,” GSTTA president Mr Vipul Mittra, IAS, said.
Surat’s Krittwika Sinha Roy, who was seeded seventh, will lead the women’s charge in the main draw which will also see the state’s top-ranked women’s paddler Frenaz Chipia who recorded dominating wins over Bengal A’s Akansha Das (3-0), Kerala’s Ankitha K (3-0) and Tamizhaga TT Association’s Gladlyn Flora Sahayaraj (3-1).
But the day belonged to another Surat girl, Aafrien, as the 17-year-old shocked senior paddler and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist in women’s team event Pooja Sahasrabudhe of PSPB 3-2 to seal the main draw berth. In an earlier match, Aafrien defeated Nikitha M Mandula of ESIC 3-1.
Surat’s Manav Thakkar, who is now representing PSPB, and his citymate Harmeet Desai along with Baroda’s Manush Shah directly qualified for the Men’s main draw.
Kachchh’s Ishaan Hingorani was in a tricky situation in his qualifying group after tying the results with Telengana’s Swarnendu Chowdhury and Pankaj Kumar Vishwakarma of RSPB with two wins and a loss but did enough to book the main draw berth.
Ahmedabad’s Dhairya Parmar, Chitrax Bhatt, Akshit Savla and Riyan Dutta also made it to the main draw.
Gujarat players in the main draw:
Women’s:
Krittwika Sinha Roy (Surat)
Aafrien Murad (Surat)
Frenaz Chipia (Surat)
Men’s:
Harmeet Desai (Surat)
Manush Shah (Baroda)
Ishaan Hingorani (Kachchh)
Dhairya Parmar (Ahmedabad)
Chitrax Bhatt (Ahmedabad)
Riyan Dutta (Ahmedabad)
Akshit Savla (Ahmedabad)
Other teams:
Manav Thakkar (Surat, PSPB)
Written by : Pranjal Protim Boruah