Indore, March 3: Going by the national ranking, Tamil Nadu’s Preyesh Raj Suresh is certain to get the top billing in the Sub-Junior Boys section of the UTT 82nd Cadet & Sub-Junior National Table Tennis Championships.

Two rounds of group events each are scheduled for the opening day in the Sub-Junior and Cadet Boys at the Abhay Prashal today. But the open draw tomorrow morning will determine who, among the other six ranked players, goes where in the seeding list.

With 450 points in his kitty and all garnered in 2019, the Tamil Nadu left-hander is sitting pretty on the top. Compare this with the likely second seed, Ankur Bhattacharjee of Bengal, with 105 national ranking points.

Ankur, who will undoubtedly consider himself lucky for this benevolence, is placed 14th in the ranking order. Thanks to an unproductive 2020 when no sport activity took place, 12 of those had moved to the upper age category in 2021. All of them will rue the loss of one year when they could have competed and even tried a shot at the title.

All this may have strengthened the hands of Preyesh. But it hasn’t made the jobs of the others, the seeds included, any easier. In a way, Preyesh starts as the tournament favourites and unless someone surprises him.

Among the other players who will get their seeding include Gaurav Panchangam (Mah), Ayan Ghosh (wildcard-TTFI), Rohith Shankar (Mar), P.B Abhinandh (TTTA), Shankhadip Das (Ben), and Samarth Singh (Del). All of them will hope for a good seeding spot and an easy quarter in the draw.

The players of the Sub-Junior and Cadet sections, divided into 40 groups each, have gone through their first-round matches.

Since it will be a 64-player draw in the second stage, eight group winners from 40 can hope to get first-round byes, along with the seeded players. All of them will get down to serious business from the Round of 32.

There were few surprises in the first and second rounds of group matches. The group toppers completed their first-round ties without dropping a sweat while the novices struggled. In the second round, Sumit Ghosh of West Bengal reserved his best for the last two games against Punjab’s Suhaan Gulati. At 1-2, the Bengal paddler first won the fourth game on extended points before clinching the crucial fifth to win 9-11, 11-4, 8-11, 13-11, 11-7.

Rajasthan’s Lakshya Toshniwal dropped a game against Karnataka’s Hrishikesh Shetluur to win 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 11-9, as did Kerala’s Anokh G. Nair, who opened badly, before recovering to win 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-6 against Madhya Pradesh’s Naitik Bamal. Akhilesh Singh from Punjab outwitted Advaith Sudeesh from Tamil Nadu, winning the second-round tie 7-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-8.

In the first round, too, Yaahaseelan Saravanan of Tamil Nadu struggled against Adlakhiya Jatin Dev of Telangana after leading 2-0. The Telangana boy did well to pull back but lost steam in the fifth to go down fighting 8-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-6, 12-10. Otherwise, most of the first-round match results were one-sided.

The Cadet Boys, who have completed their first-round matches, will continue with their second-round ties later this evening.