Greater Noida, November 6: With eight seeded players yet to make an appearance, the former national champions like Poulami Ghatak and Mouma Das had a field day in women singles on the opening day of the 11Sports National Ranking Championships (North) at the Gautam Buddha University hall as they entered the main draw here today.

Even as they played their role to perfection, without having to drop a sweat, the up-and-coming players did not have it as easy as it can get and yet they made the main-draw cut, thanks to the new system which allows two qualifiers to make the grade.

There were as many as 18 benefited from the largesse after they had to really fight hard against some juniors.

But the group matches that went down to the wire included in group 3 when Mousumi Paul of PSPB had to overcome a stiff resistance from Aanchal Malhotra of Delhi before the PSPB women could beat hear 6-11, 11-2, 6-11, 11-5, 11-8. But Aanchal, too progressed, because of a walkover in her group despite losing her only match in the group.

Soumi Mondal was another PSPB girl, who had to fight for the second solt, as she defeated Trisha Gogoi of Assam, a junior girl, who won her maiden title in the East Zone. Soumi won 9-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-13, 9-11 in group 10. Similarly, group 11 topper Nikhat Banu of RBI went down to sub-junior girl Vanshika Bhargava of Delhi before the RGI girl won 11-6, 9-11, 3-11, 12-10, 10-12. But that win against a prominent player launched the Delhi girl to the top position in the group while pushing Nikhat Banu to the second spot.

Manushree Patil of Airports Authority of India had a tough game against Maharashtra’s Senhora D’Souza but the former justified her group 17 top position with that 11-4, 13-15, 10-12, 11-7, 11-8 verdict. Senhora, who had accounted for other two group players easily captured the second spot in the group and qualify.

With as many as 28 groups, except for the first four groups which had three players each, the rest of the entrants were divided into the 24 groups with four players each.

Unlike the men draw, which will be of 128, the main draw for women would be of 64 with all top players entering the fray straightaway from tomorrow morning.

The men singles are underway with the third round matches yet to finish. Tomorrow, the Youth Boys and Youth Girls qualifications will begin along with the main draw in both men and women singles.

Important Results:

Group 3: Mouumi Paul (PSPB) bt Aanchal Malhotra (DL) 3-2.

Group 5: Priyadarshini Das (RBI) bt Manisha Sharma (Raj) 3-1.

Group 6: Mouma Das (PSPB) bt Kushi Viswanath (KNT) 3-1.

Group 7: Amrutha Pushpak (RBI) bt Ashlesha Trehan (Mah) 3-1.

Group 8: Krittwika Sinha Roy (PSPB) bt Hely Shah (Guj) 3-1.

Group 10: Soumi Mondal (PSPB) bt Trisha Gogoi (Asm) 3-2.

Group 11: Nikhat Banu (RBI) lost to Vanshika Bhargava (DLI) 2-3.

Group 17: Manushree Patil (AAI) lost to Senhora D’Souza (Mah) 2-3.

Group 18: Moumita Duttga (AAI) bt Oishwarya Deb (WB) 3-2

Group 19: Anusha Kutumbale (MP) lost to Riti Shankar (HRN) 2-3; Riti Shankar lost to Adrija (Asm) 2-3.

Group 21: Abinaya Ramesh (TN) bt Kritika Malik (DLI) 3-2.

Group 23: Shailu Noorbasha (AP) lost to Prapti Sen (WB) 2-3, bt Garima Goel (DLI) 3-2.

Group 24: Mamata Prabhu (DB) bt Shreya Deshpande (Mah) 3-2.

Group 28: Poulami Das (WB) bt Kakoli Lahkar (RBI) 3-2.