Dehradun, December 10:  With top eight seeds and eight qualifiers getting first-round byes in the main draw of the Under-15 Girls, the focus shifted to the remaining 16 matches in the UTT National Ranking Championships at the Multipurpose Hall here today.

In what were clashes among the qualifiers, the first half witnessed three desperate matches, between Tamil Nadu’s Ananya Muralidharan and Dipannita Saha of West Bengal, Delhi’s Archa Jain and Anokolikha Chakraborty, also from West Bengal, UP’s Avani Tripathi and Anandita Lunawat of Maharashtra. All three matches went down to the wire, with Ananya, Archa, and Avani entering the round of 32, after notching up 3-2 wins.

Ananya, winning the energy-sapping first game 17-15, could not produce the magic form in the second. Yet, she did well to win the third to go up 2-1 in another extended game. But it was back to square one when Dipannita struck back in the fourth to level the score. However, in the decider, the Tamil Nadu girl clinched it.

Archa, down 1-2, stopped her Bengal rival and title-winner in the Under-11 Girls yesterday on her tracks to take the last two games comfortably. Avani, too, faced mid-game glitches as Anandita Lunawat levelled the score to take the issue to the decider, which the UP girl won.  

Another Delhi girl, Sayanika Maji, began badly losing the first and third games against Bengal’s Ditsa Roy. She, however, managed to win the last two to romp home winners. Promising Nandini Reena Balaji from Tamil Nadu ran into another Bengal paddler, Syndrela Das. It was baptism by fire in the Under-15 section for the Under-13 girl. Nandini withstood the pressure from her rival to win the last two games after dropping the second and third.

With 56 groups in the Under-15 Boys, there was no respite given to the top eight seeds, and they had to get down to the main draw business straightaway. In the process, Gaurav Panchangam of Maharashtra and Abhinav Murthy of Karnataka, fifth and eighth seeds, respectively, made their first-round exits. Divyaj Rajkhova, a TTFI wildcard, accounted for Gaurav in straight games while UP’s Pritham Raina beat Abhinav 3-2. The rest of the seeded players moved into the round of 32 without hiccups.

Meanwhile, the group qualification matches in Under-17 and Under-19 singles got underway from today.

IMPORTANT RESULTS:

Youth Girls U-15: R-64: Ananya Muralidharan (TTTA) bt Dipannita Saha (WB) 17-15, 8-11, 13-11, 8-11, 11-7; Archa Jain (Del) bt Ankolika Chakraborty (WB) 11-9, 6-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-5; Avani Tripathi (UP) bt Anandita Lunawat (Mah) 11-8, 13-15, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9; Sayanika Maji (Del) bt Ditsa Roy (WB) 8-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8; Nandini Reena Balaji (TNTTA) bt Syndrela Das (WB) 11-2, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6.

Youth Boys U-15: R-64: Akshat Jain (Mah) bt Mohamed Naffila (Ker) 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 11-3; Pratham Raina (UP) bt Abhinav K. Murthy (Kar) 11-6, 7-11, 11-6, 11-13, 11-9; Divyaj Rajkhowa (TTFI) bt Gaurav Panchangam (Mah) 11-9, 11-8, 12-10; Akshay Yadav (Mah) bt Teshub Dinesh (Kar) 7-11, 8-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-4; Himansh Dahiya (Guj) bt Arnav Zagade (Mah) 11-6, 8-11, 13-11, 9-11, 11-9; Siddhant Kataria (Har) bt Siddhant Vasan (Kar) 11-6, 9-11, 10-12, 11-3, 11-9,Sharveya Samant (Mah) bt Aranis Bana (UP) 10-12, 11-8, 11-8, 5-11, 14-12.