Dehradun, December 8:  Four top-group performers in the newly-introduced Youth Under-11 Boys and Youth Under-11 Girls have been rewarded with byes along with top-seed positions in the UTT National Ranking Championships at the Multipurpose Hall here today.

Akash Rajavelu of Tamil Nadu and Ankolika Chakraborty of West Bengal, the two No. 1 seeds in respective sections, will begin their main draw action from Round 32. However, the other 24 qualifiers had to start their campaign from the Round of 64.

The other qualifiers who got the benefit of byes included Sroban Paul from Bengal, Vatsal Duklan from Haryana and Sathyanarayana Karmeghakannan, also from Tamil Nadu in the Boys category, while Amritha Sridhar (TN), Prateeti Paul (WB), and Ahona Ray (WB) profited in the Girls section.

Among the first-round showdown in the Boys section, the match between Rishaan Chattopadhyay from Bengal and Bhavit Bisht Singh from Rajasthan went down to the wire. Rishaan defeated Bhavit 8-11, 11-3, 9-11, 11-8, 12-10.

Rishaan began badly but steadied himself to level the score. However, the Rajasthan boy went 2-1 up again, forcing his Bengal rival on the back foot. Nevertheless, Rishaan took the fourth game with some sharp attacks and finished off in style, despite some late resistance from Bhavit in the decider.  

All but three first-round matches saw some fight brewing before the eventual winners shut off their opponents with 3-1 verdicts. Himon Kumar Mondal of Bengal defeated Vansh Chouhan of MP 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 11-6, SM Sai Sarvesh from Tamil Nadu accounted for Tathagata Mallick from Bengal 11-9, 4-11, 11-8, 11-6, and Nivaan Sheth of Maharashtra, despite dropping a game, downed Mradul Joshi from MP 11-3, 11-8, 9-11, 12-10.

In contrast, Rajasthan’s Samridhi Vyas had to play three extended games to notch up her first-round win against Pranavi Seth of Bengal. Samridhi took the first game comfortably without knowing what was in store for her in the reminders. The Bengal girl fought back nicely to level score at 15-13. With renewed confidence in the third, she attacked well. But after deuce, the Rajasthan girl went into the lead.  In the decider, the fortune kept swinging with both unable to hold their match-points. In the end, Samridhi emerged as the winner, wrapping it up with an 11-5, 13-15, 12-10, 16-14 score.

In the clash of UP’s Anokhi Kesari and Bengal’s Ranjini Sahas, the latter won the battle 4-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5, Rivana Sarkara, also from Bengal, defeated Aarya Deepak Redkar of Maharashtra 8-11, 11-5, 11-2, 13-11, Naisha Rewasakar from Maharashtra won over Shariqa Shahid from Bengal 13-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9 in a tight match, and Charmy Trivedi from Gujarat defeated Arushi Manna from Bengal 11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6.

Meanwhile, with qualifiers identified in the Under-15 Girls, they will also join the main draw action later this evening.