Vadodara: On a disappointing day for hosts Gujarat, Arnee Parmar brought a flicker of hope in her triumphant entry into the main draw of the Youth Under-19 Girls section of the third UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the SAMA Stadium here today.
Arnee’s qualification for the knockout stage was a much-needed relief for the hosts after 11 of them entered the fray along with Arnee, who fell by the wayside.
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, too, 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.
In almost all groups, the leaders maintained their grip on the qualifiers and went through the motions. However, in a few groups, the No. 2 players have made it to the second stage.
For instance, Shravani Loke of Maharashtra upstaged Dharshini Mouriya of NCOE to occupy the top slot in Group 20, as did Ditsa Roy of West Bengal, who beat Avani Tripathi of UP 11-3, 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6 in a thriller to take the top perch.
Pranavi Ashok of Karnataka accounted for Mukta Dalvi to occupy the top position in Group 27, like Prisha Goel of Delhi, who beat Karruna Gajendran of Karnataka 3-0 in Group 28. Pranati Nair of Kerala won her game against Rutuja Chinchansure 3-0, but lost to Aarti Chaudhary of UP 8-11. 11-6, 4-11, 11-13 in a tough outing to bow out.
The last round of the Youth Boys Under-19 is still underway, and a clear picture will emerge at the end of the round.
