Thane, November 14: Probably jaded and unable to adapt the conditions not conducive for table tennis, the on-going 11Sports National Ranking Championships (West) for the Mayor Cup at the Dadoji Konddev Stadium saw an unprecedented procession of seeded players in here today.

Playing back-to-back tournaments in just a couple of days, too, must have played role in the exodus. However, the worst-hit were the Sub-Junior Boys as all but one seeded player was knocked out in the round of 32, that too after enjoying first-round byes.

In Sub-Junior Girls, top-seeded Munmun Kundu lost to qualifier Namna Jaiswal of Gujarat 2-3 while seventh-seed Lakshita Narang of Delhi followed suit, bowing out to another qualifier Sneha Bhowmick 1-3 even as the other seeds survived to live another day.

The seeded players’ procession that began with top-seed Payas Jain and continued with second seeded H. Jeho got extended to No. 3 Dev Shroff, No. 5 Agniv Bhaskar, No. 6 Jayabrata Bhattacharjee, No. 7 Yashansh Malik and No. 8 Hrishikesh Malhotra.

The surprise packages happened to be from Gujarat as Harshal Kothari and Namna Jaiswal, the daughter of the oldest male player still active, Jignesh Jaiswal.

Harshal, a qualifier, did not have to try anything hard against Payas. The Delhi player, who never easily gives up, painted a pathetic picture against Harshal who, despite losing the first game substantially, made a fine recovery particularly when he went 2-1 up after deuce in the third game. Payas was simply not allowed to play his forceful forehands as every return from him elicited equally good response from the Gujarat boy as he simply wore him out.

Similarly, Namna showed how gutsy she cane like her father when it came to putting up a fight. The girl, who went on to grab her quarterfinal place, removed the first hurdle on her way when she took on the top-seed Mumnun Kundu, the North Zone title holder, with a 3-2 verdict.

The West Bengal girl was down 2-1 up and looked like sewing it up in the fourth when she and Namna were going neck and neck. But a couple of net errors, coupled with a few negative points, helped Namna’s cause who won to make it 2-2. In the decider, Namna surged passed Munmun with a comfortable lead and Munmun was never allowed to come back.

The only seed that survived was Maharashtra’s Deepit Patil, seeded fourth, as he entered the quarterfinal beating Varun Shankar of Telangana 3-1. The Maharashtra boy, who won the North Zone title at Greater Noida a couple of days ago, will take on Varun Ganesh of Tamil Nadu, who had to pull himself out of a tricky situation to beat Satyam Giri Gupta of PSPBA.

Meanwhile, the qualification matches began in Junior Boys and Girls categories. But the attention will be on the Sub-Junior and Cadet Boys and Girls finals tomorrow, as the plethora upsets on Tuesday have thrown open the doors to the players that remain in fray. It’s up to them to grab the opportunity with both hands.

Results (Pre-quarter-finals):

Sub-junior Boys: Harshil Kothari (GUJ) bt (1) Payas Jain (DEL) 8-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-6; Alberto Lrruata (PSPBA) bt (8) Hrishikesh Malhotra (MAH) 10-12, 11-7, 5-11, 12-10, 11-6; Varun Ganesh (TN) bt Satyam Giri (PSPBA) 12-10, 9-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7; (4) Deepit Patil (MAH) bt Varun Shanker (TEL) 7-11 11-6, 11-6, 12-10; Arush Dutt (DEL) bt K. Karthikeyan (TN) 11-8, 7-11, 11-6, 9-11, 12-10; Preyesh Raj (TN) bt Jayabrata Bhattacharjee (NB) 9-11, 11-7, 5-11, 12-10, 11-8; Chitrax Bhatt (GUJ) bt (7) Yashansh Malik (DEL) 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6; D. Vishwa (TN) bt (2) H. Jeho (PSPBA) 11-7, 6-11, 5-11, 11-5, 11-8.

Sub-junior Girls: Namna Jayswal bt Meghana Karandikar (MAH) 11-4, 11-6, 11-8; (8) Suhana Saini (HAR) bt Tisha Kohli (DEL) 11-6, 4-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6; (5) Vanshika Bhargava (DEL) bt Cathrin Tina Dass (TN) 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7; (4) Mihika Rohira (MAH) bt Vidhi Shah (MAH) 9-11, 11-2, 11-9, 10-12, 11-7; (3) Trisha Gogoi (ASM) bt Pritha Vartikar (MAH) 11-4, 11-8, 11-3; (6) Anarghya Manjunath (KAR) bt Radhapriya Goel (UP) 11-6, 11-8, 14-12; Sneha Bhowmick (WB) bt Kavyasree Baskar (TN) 11-7, 11-9, 11-8; (2) Nithyashree Mani (TN) bt Aditi Joshi (KAR) 11-6, 10-12, 11-7, 8-11, 15-13.