Dharamshala, November 19: Tamil Nadu’s Preyesh Raj Suresh has been accorded the top billing in Sub-Junior Boys singles, while Haryana’s Suhana Saini gets the privilege in Sub-Junior Girls singles of the UTT 81st Cadet and Sub-Junior National Table Tennis Championships at the Indoor Stadium here today.

Their consistent title wins in the just-concluded national ranking championships have earned them the top spots and the other seeding will be done after the qualification rounds get over tonight.

With 72 groups in Boys and 70 in Girls, with one paddler going into the second stage knockout—they will be joined by top eight seeded players in each section—it’s a tough time as the players will have to go all out to qualify for the main draw which begins tomorrow.

With the four extra entries allowed per state in each category, it will be a draw of 128. This does offer several first-round byes to quality players as well.

As for the Cadet Boys and Cadet Girls, it will be a simple 64-member draw and all those competing will have to strive hard to make the cut. Only the top ones in each group go through to the next stage.

In group matches, with just two rounds each got over in the four categories, the tide seems to be in favour of the group toppers. But nothing can be said at this point of time as the last round tomorrow morning will decide who all have made it to the knockout rounds.

Priyanuj Bhattacharyya of PSPB Academy looked to be Cadet Boys player to qualify from group 1, while P.B. Abhinand of Tamil Nadu has already posted a win to grab his spot from group 2 .

Priyanuj beat Karan Malhotra of Chhattisgarh 3-0 and Abhinand accounted for Mayank Majumdar, also from Chhattisgarh.

There were other winners who registered their first-round wins over their group rivals and they included Umesh Kumar of Tamil Nadu, Divyaj Rajkhowa of PSPBA, Dhruv Shah of Maharashtra.

Others posted one win each included Segal Singh, Mani Sudhanshu, Adlakhiya Jatin Dev, Punis Biswas, Hriday Deshpande, Atherva Gupta, Siddhant Kataria, Priyanshu Karmakar, S. Sriram, Patyush Mondal and Middela Arush Reddy.

In fact, all group toppers have performed well on the opening day of the singles events and if they continue in the same vein they should easily qualify. But it is certainly a hectic period for the young paddlers to jostle for the big space and make the grade.