Pune, October 6: Contrary to expectations, it was shocking to see Akaash Nath of AAI and Shakreja Gourang of Haryana failing to make the cut in men singles main draw as did Mousumi Paul of PSPB in women singles on the second day of the 11Sports National Ranking (West Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Mhalunge-Balewadi Sports Complex here today.

As if this was not sufficient, some topsy-turvy results pushed a few favouites to the second spots in their respective groups, giving them a lease of life. However, the heartening fact was Anindita Chakraborty of the Railways and Jignesh Jaiswal of Gujarat, the two oldest paddlers participating in the tournament, qualified for the knockout stage along with former national champion K. Shamini.

The biggest disappointments were Akaash Nath and Mousumi Paul, both group leaders, as they were expected to qualify.

But the AAI lad, clubbed in group 28 with three players, managed a solitary win against Assam’s Shankab Barua 3-1 and a walkover against the third player who failed to make an appearance. This helped him with five points. But his tame loss to Harsh Sachnandani (11-7, 14-12, 11-3) from Madhya Pradesh and the Assam boy, in turn, beating Harsh forced a three-way tie and the AAI boy was edged out by Barua on better points ratio. Thus both the paddlers from MP and Assam made it to the main draw.

Similarly, the Haryana boy Gourang lost two of his matches to Surajit Das of ESIC (0-3) and Chhattisgarh’s Santtosh Araswilli (1-3) while registering a lone 11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8 win against Goa’s Dheeraj Rai.

On the other hand, Mousumi, who has a better track record, was pushed to the third spot in her group 10 as she notched up a single win (3-0) over Meenushree Seal from MP while losing her first and second-round matches to Nikita Sarkar of North Bengal and Tamanna Saini of Delhi. The last two qualified for the second stage.

Other than these group matches, some group leaders found themselves reduced to the position of a second qualifier from the group. There were examples galore. But the most prominent among them was Haryana’s Sourav Saha, his 1-3 loss against Tamil Nadu’s Abinay Vijay Babu must have hurt him badly as he was just a slot behind No. 16 seed Abhishek Yadav, and could have got a better position in the bottom half of the draw, which is reserved to group winners.

Meanwhile, two rounds of qualification will get over in Youth Boys and Youth Girls tonight with the last round to be played tomorrow.

Important Results:

Men:

Group 4: Sayantan Dey (CRSB) bt Ravindra Kotiyan (RSPB) 11-9, 3-11, 11-8, 11-8; Group 21: Kannan Shriram (TN) bt Prashant Aher (RSPB) 9-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8; Group 23: Sanat Bokil (Mah) bt Sivananda Seshadri (CRSB) 13-11, 8-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-9; Group 26: Abhinav Belwal (UP) bt Soham Bhattacharya (CB) 11-9, 11-9, 11-8; Group 28: Harsh Sachnandani (MP) bt Akaash Nath (AAI) 11-7, 14-12, 11-3; Shankab Barua (Asm) bt Harsh Sachnandani (MP) 9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-5; Group 31: Surajit Das (ESIC) bt Gourang Shakreja (Haar) 11-7, 11-4, 11-8; Santosh Araswilli (Chhattisgarh) 6-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-6; Group 38: Abinay Vijay Babu (TN) bt Soura Saha (Har) 9-11, 11-9, 13-11, 12-10.

Women:

Group 9: Aanchal Malhotra (Del) bt Moumita Dutta (AAI) 11-8, 11-7, 12-10; Group 10: Nikita Sarkar (NB) bt Mousumi Paul (PSPB) 14-12, 11-7, 6=11, 11-5, 11-4, Tamanna Saini (Del) bt Mousumi Paul (PSPB) 11-7, 5-11, 11-9, 13-11; Group 17: Snehal Patil (Mah) bt Frenaz Chipia (Guj) 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-3; Group 19: Deepika Neelakandan (TN) 15-13, 12-10, 7-11, 11-8; Group 24: Nithyashree ani (TN) bt Mamata Prabhu (DB) 11-9, 13-11, 11-8; Group 26: Anusha Kutambale (MP) bt Naina (Telg) 11-3, 12-10, 11-5, Tejal Kamble (Mah) bt Naina (Telg) 11-2, 11-8, 11-4.