Archa Jain, Radhika Soni begin strongly in UTT National Ranking Table Tennis

New Delhi, Sep 7 (PTI) Delhi's Archa Jain and Rajasthan's Radhika Soni emerged as the standout performers, displaying ample composure on way to winning their respective Under-19 Girls' matches in the second UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships, which commenced here on Sunday.

On a day when most group toppers eased through their opening rounds, Archa showed tactical maturity beyond her age to defeat Bengal's Pritha Talukdar 5-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8, 11-2 in Group 3.

Archa will take on Maharashtra's Hardee Patel on Monday.

Rajasthan's Radhika Soni produced one of the more eye-catching results by toppling Tamil Nadu's higher-ranked K. Ananya in five games. Bengal's Soumya Das too scripted a comeback, overturning a 1-2 deficit to beat Rajasthan's Sunidhi Dewan in another pulsating encounter.

Local girl Sandhya Kumari ground out an 11-6, 8-11, 5-11, 11-5, 11-9 win over Pondicherry's S. Shivasri. Haryana's Tanmayee Saha overcame a spirited effort from Maharashtra's Anoushka Patil, recovering in time to clinch the decider 11-7 for a 3-2 win.

Delhi's Tushti Sood also displayed her promise, edging Bengal's Snigdha Das in five games, while Kerala's Dhaani Jain scored back-to-back wins to put herself in a strong position for the knockouts.

In other first-round matches, Maharashtra's Pratik Yedke had to dig deep against UP's Vansh Sundriyal, while NCOE's Shrijoyee Mukherjee staged a recovery against Somya Singh after dropping the first two games.

However, Shrijoyee's teammate Ardita Das could not follow suit, falling to UP's Ayushi Singhal in five games. UP's Samriddhi Sharma edged past Delhi's Aarna Gauhar Ahuja 14-12 in the decider for a 3-2 victory. PTI AM AM AH AH