Indore, October 8: Unseeded Saundarya Pathak from Uttar Pradesh accounted for No. 3 seed Sreeja Akula from Telangana in the first round of the Junior Girls main draw of the National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal here today.

This was the lone upset in the Junior Girls category as 32 players stepped on the gas, making a dash to the medal rounds. Sreeja, normally a technically-sound player, was out of depth today and Saundarya exploited it to the hilt, winning the march 3-1 (11-8, 9-11, 13-11, 11-5).

The unseeded Saundarya had an easy first game but Sreeja made it up in the second by winning it by the narrowest margin. Yet, the latter was definitely struggling to find her forehand going as she made quite a few mistakes at crucial junction. After two deuces, Saundarya made it hers to go 2-1 up.

That was also the indication of things to come as, capitalizing on her rival’s folly, the UP girl attacked her way into the second round. Saundarya’s sister Aishwarya, however, could not do much against West Bengal’s Sumana Saha, seeded eighth.

Otherwise, it was a smooth sailing for the rest of the top eight girls who were engaged from the first round even as the top 16 in the Junior Boys section rested themselves after having received byes in round 1.

The promising Archana Kamath, the lone PSPB qualifier, could not withstand the pressure of a tough competition in the Junior Girls section. She went down to Maharashtra’s Shruti Amrute, No. 5 seed, 4-11, 11-5, 8-11, 9-11 after putting up a good fight.  

Earlier during the day, 32 boys and 24 girls qualified for the main draw from as many groups in each section. As usual, PSPB paddlers dominated the scene with six of their boys going through. Archana Kamath was the lone entry in the girls section from PSPB and she made the grade.

In the qualifiers in the morning, all but one could not make it to the main draw as Souvik Banerjee of West Bengal exited in a three-way. Banerjee was the No. 1 player in the group, based on his ranking, but it was Goutam Dhruvansh from UP who ousted him with a 4:3 ratios. Otherwise, all group leaders scored clear wins to enter the round of 64.

Five form Maharashtra, three each from West and Nor Bengal, Delhi made the cut in the boys category. As for the girls, four of AAI paddlers, three from Telangana and two each from West Bengal, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and one each from hosts MP, Delhi, Rajasthan, Goa and North Bengal qualified.

The qualification events in men and women’s categories will get over later tonight and the winners in each of 24 groups will join the likes of Poulomi Ghatak, Pooja Sahasrabudhe, Ankita Das, Madhurika Patkar, Reth Rishya, Krittwika Sinha Roy, Mousumi Paul and Mouma Das, who are the top eight seeds, in the main draw.

As the for the top eight in men’s singles, national champion Sanil Shetty, G. sAthiyan, Sarthak Gandhi, Soumyadeep Roy, Sourav Saha, Lalrin Puia, Subhajit Saha and Lakshminarayanan, they have all been given direct main draw entry.