Alappuzha, June 18: Top-seeded Suhana Saini of Haryana disposed of Sampriti of Bengal in less than 20 minutes to enter the second round of the Youth Girls Under 17 singles in the 83rd Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships at the YMCA facilities, here today.

Following suit were Tanisha Kotecha of Maharashtra, seeded eighth, No. 5 Lakshita Narang of Delhi, and the lanky Jennifer Varghese of Maharashtra, the fourth seed. They all registered 3-0 verdicts without breaking a sweat on a humid day.

The four, occupying the first half of the draw, played in a business-like mode and accounted for their opponents—all qualifiers—with utmost precision to warm up for the tough grind. Suhana, starting cautiously, raised the tempo in the next two games to outplay West Bengal’s Sampriti.  Tanisha, in a punishing mood right from the word go, beat Maulisha Thanvi of Rajasthan, finishing off her match in a flurry.  

Delhi’s Lakshita showed no mercy against UP’s Aarti Chaudhary despite the latter running her close in the third game. Yet, Lakshita made a quick turnaround in her pursuit to win with a minimal margin. Jennifer seemed a little uncertain before wrapping it up against Kavya Yadav of Haryana.

Shriya Anand of Tamil Nadu, Sandika Bhattacharjee of Bengal, and Pranati P. Narai of Kerala dropped a game each before making it to the Round of 32.

Shriya defeated Mannika Kesar of Delhi 11-6, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8, Sandika downed Ananya Chande of Maharashtra 6-11, 11-9, 11-6, 12-10, and Pranati beat Amrutha Subaash of Tamil Nadu 11-5, 9-11, 11-7, 13-11. But statemate Krishna Smrithi tasted defeat when she went down 1-3 to second-seeded Kavyashree Baskar of Tamil Nadu.

Though the other seeds in the second half managed to keep their slate clean, advancing to the Round of 32, seventh seed Riddhima survived a scare from Arya Songadkar of Maharashtra. Trailing 1-2 in the first round, the Delhi girl pulled herself up courageously in the nick of time to win 3-2.

M. Hansini, a promising 12-year-old from Tamil Nadu, almost pulled off a heist against Sayali Wani of Maharashtra. But the former Sub-Junior National champion had a lot of energy in the decider to beat Hansini 3-2 and enter the next round.

The first-round matches in the Youth Girls Under-17 are underway and the girls in both sections will play two more rounds this evening. Three rounds, including the finals, will be played tomorrow.

Important Results (Round 64): Suhana Saini (Har) bt Sampriti Roy (Ben) 11-8, 11-3, 11-4; Tanisha Kotecha (Mah) bt Maulisha Thanvi (Raj 11-4, 11-3, 11-3; Lakshita Narang (Del) bt Aarti Chaudhary (UP) 11-8, 11-7, 11-9; Jennifer Varghese (Mah) bt Kavya Yadav (Har) 11-7, 11-8, 11-2; Pritha Vartikar (Mah) bt Ekantika Sathish (TNTTA) 11-5, 10-12, 11-3, 11-0; Risha Mirchandani (Mah) bt Preeti Rajkumara (TTTA) 11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 13-11; Riddhima Kapoor (Del) bt Arya Songadkar (Mah) 11-6, 4-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8; Kavyashree Baskara (TTTA) bt Smrithi Krishna (Ker) 11-7, 11-4, 11-6.