Howrah, October 19: If hosts West Bengal’s Sub-Junior Boys led the qualification chart with as many as 10 of them making the cut, it was Maharashtra girls who topped with nine of them entering the main draw in the same category of the UTT National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Howrah Indoor Stadium here today.

Even as the qualifiers got engaged themselves with their first-round matches in both the sections, the eight top players who got byes will be seen in action from late evening today.

However, what made things interesting on the second day morning was the few matches that went down to the wire in the last round of qualification.

Maharashtra’s Aadil Anand edged past Soumil Mukherjee of West Bengal 11-9, 4-11, 7-11, 11-9, 13-11 in a thriller as the former managed to on extended points in the decider o seal his main-draw place. PSPB Academy’s had to muster courage to stage a comeback after trailing 0-2 to beat Anirban Mani of West Bengal 8-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-3.

So did K.J. Akash of Karnataka when he beat Trishul Mehra of Telangana 11-13, 11-2, 7-11, 11-5, 11-9. Tejas Narang of Delhi, too, had to dig himself out of the rut in the decider to oust P.B. Abhinand of Tamil Nadu 11-3, 11-9, 11-8, 3-11, 12-10. Haryana’s Namir Arora, despite beating Jyoti Sarma of Assam 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6 in yet another thriller could not qualify while statemate Naman Arora eased into the main draw, beating Krishna Ashmith of Tamil Nadu 11-3, 11-7, 11-6.

In other interesting matches, Ankur Bhattacharjee, Bodisatwa Chaudhury, Shankhadip Das, Ayan Ghosh, Saranya Paul, Oishik Ghosh, Emom Adhikary, Aadi chtnis and Praijat Dwary from West Bengal qualified to keep the hosts’ hope alive.

In comparison to their boys, only seven of West Bengal girls made the grade and one among them, Sandika Bhattacharjee, proved her mettle with a fantastic fight back against Tamil Nadu’s Preeti Rajkumar, winning the third round in the decider (11-8, 5-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7). Similarly, Kaashvi Gupta of Delhi had to put it up against a courageous Avisha Karmakar of West Bengal. The Delhi girl won 7-11, 11-8, 11-6, 4-11, 11-8.

Srijita Shaw, also of West Bengal, had reserved her best for the third-round match against Pritha Talukdar of North Bengal to enter the main draw when the former won 11-2, 11-1, 7-11, 7-11, 11-5. Pritha, losing the first two games tamely, did well to take the next two before losing the decider. But it was Deshana Vanshika of Karnataka, despite losing the match against Ananya Phadke of Maharashtra 5-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-2, 3-11, qualified for the Stage 2. Sharvani Nagam put it across Sayali Wani of Maharashtra 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 6-11, 11-4 to qualify.

Thirty-two qualifiers each in Cadet Boys and Girls were identified and they would also play their first round main draw matches today. Meanwhile, the qualification events for Junior Boys and Girls began today.