SILIGURI, October 28: Top eight players, who were given direct entry into the main draw, based on their current rankings, in the Sub-Junior Boys and Girls sections, respectively, were joined by the group leaders as the qualification phase in the National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships ended here at the Municipal Stadium today.

After three rounds of qualification matches since morning, 24 boys and 20 girls who got to join the elite will play their first round matches of the main draw tonight. The outcome of those matches will decide who will sail into the last 16 stage.

In the Sub-Junior Boys, Manav Thakkar, Ranit Bhanja, Jeet Chandra, Neeldeep Das, Akash Choudhary, Sarthak Seth, Soham Bhattacharya and Shaurya Penekar were the lucky ones to get the direct entry, while in the girls category, the fortunate ones were Moumitta Dutta, Aishwarya Pathak, Shruti Amrute, Naina, Koushani Nath, Saundarya Pathak, Abhinaya Ramesh and S. Yashini.

The group matches in both categories did not throw up any surprise but there were a few walkovers in Stage 1 which made the life of a few juniors easy as they walked into the main draw without sweating it out much. That was because several boys and girls, who had sent in their entries, could not make it Siliguri owing to train delay and cancellation despite the organisers extending a helping hand.

There were as many as five North Bengal paddlers from the Sub-Junior Boys category made it to the main draw, while among the girls it was one less. Surprisingly, there was a lone PSPBA boy in Thakkar who got the direct entry and West Bengal’s dominance was very much visible with five boys avoiding the qualification rounds. As compared, West Bengal’s Moumita Dutta and Koushani Nath received direct entries in the girls section.

There was not much to write home about in the Cadet Boys and Girls sections. With the organisers receiving only fewer entries, the boys and girls have been divided into 20 and 16 groups, respectively.

In other words, those who qualify from the girls section—one each from 16 groups—will play in the pre-quarterfinals while top 12 of the 20 Cadet Boys following their qualification will get first-round bye before they begin their knockout matches tomorrow.

The last day of the championships on Tuesday will see all knockout matches being played from the pre-quarterfinals stage in the morning with finals slated for the latter session.