Arnee enters the main draw as others bow out

Vadodara, November 21: It was a disappointing show for the paddlers from the host state as all 10 out of the participants in the Youth Under-19 Girls fell by the wayside on the first day of the third UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the SAMA Stadium here today.

However, Arnee Parmar stood out among the crowd to enter the main draw, which was a knockout. Arnee defeated Mitali Purkar 12-10, 12-10, 12-10 in what turned out as a marathon, giving her enough strength to outsmart Bhavprita Sharma of Himachal Pradesh 11-5, 12-10, 11-4.

Sheli Patel, however, played somewhat better and even stood a chance to qualify for the knockout stage of the championships in her section. But she faltered to deceive when she went down to Amrutha Subaash in straight games of 7-11, 3-11, 3-11. The Gujarat girl had a good chance until she met Amrutha after beating Nihali Patil of Maharashtra 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9 in the first round in Group 14.

In the other groups, those who failed to make it to the main draw of the event included Kushi Jadav, Nidhi Prajapati, Riya Jayswal, Tanisha Katarmal, Aastha Mistry, Mouboni Chatterjee, Arnee Parmar, Krisha Patel, Siddhi Patel and Jiya Trivedi. They all, like Sheli, showed promise with a good outing, and some even managed to win one round before going out.

Riya Jayswal posted an 11-6, 11-7, 11-2 win over Ananya Mittal of TTFI 1 but failed to cash in on her position in the second round of Group 17 outing. Riya lost to Vartica Bharat of the National Centre of Excellence, Kolkata, 11-9, 8-11, 6-11, 1-11, sending her out of reckoning.

Mouboni Chatterjee of Gujarat registered a first-round victory against Maulisha Thanvi of TTFI 2 when she won 11-4, 11-, 8-11, 11-3. However, she lost her crucial second-round tie against Ananya Chande of Maharashtra, going down 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6

The last round of the Youth Boys Under-19 is still underway and a clear picture would emerge at the end of the round.