National Ranking TT: Sathiyan, Harmeet, Payas enter quarterfinals

New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) The pre-quarterfinals of the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships saw most top-seeded players advance though not without a few hiccups.

In the men's singles, fourth seed Ronit Bhanja fell early, but the remaining big names, including Ankur Bhattacharjee, Harmeet Desai, G. Sathiyan, and Payas Jain booked their quarterfinal spots.

SFR Snehit had to dig deep to oust Priyanuj Bhattacharyya 3-2, while Harmeet too survived a five-game match against Tharun Shanmugam.

The women's singles witnessed tighter battles. Top seed Diya Chitale was stretched to five games by Assam's Trisha Gogoi before scraping through. Seeded players Yashaswini Ghorpade and Sutirtha Mukherjee also endured full-distance wins, while Vadodara champion Anusha Kutumbale crashed out to Reeth Rishya in another thriller.

In the U-19 boys' singles, only Bengal's Oishik Ghosh faced a scare, coming from 0-2 down to beat Karnataka's Atharva Nawaranage 3-2. Top seed P.B. Abhinand and other favourites — Kushal Chopda, Punit Biswas, and M. Balamurugan — progressed comfortably.

The U-19 girls' singles largely stuck to the script, with Divyanshi Bhowmick, Jennifer Varghese, Ananya Muralidharan, and M. Hansini cruising into the last eight. Maharashtra's Naisha Rewaskar, however, edged out Sukrati Sharma 3-2 in one of the closer ties.

Results: Men's Singles (PQF): Ankur Bhattacharjee (WB) bt Preyesh Raj Suresh (RSPB) 3-1; SFR Snehit (IA&AD) bt Priyanuj Bhattacharyya (Asm) 3-2; Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Tharun Shanmugam (TN) 3-2; Raegan Albuquerque (Mah) bt Jash Modi (Mah) 3-0; Payas Jain (Del) bt Aniket Sen. Choudhury (WB) 3-0; Akash Pal (RSPB) bt Yashansh Malik (Del) 3-1; Punit Biswas (WB) bt Deepit Patil (Mah) 3-2; G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Sudhanshu Grover (Del) 3-0.

Women's Singles (PQF): Diya Chitale (RBI bt Trisha Gogoi (Asm) 3-2; Taneesha Kotecha (Mah) bt Suhana Saini (Har) 3-1; Senhora D’Souza (BoB) bt Tamanna Saini (IA&AD) 3-0; Yashaswini Ghorpade (PSPB) bt Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) 3-2; Sutirtha Mukherjee (RSPB) bt Selena Deepthi (TN) 3-2; Reeth Rishya (PSPB) bt Aanusha Kutumbale (RSPB) 3-2; Syndrela Das (WB) bt Nithyashree Mani (TN) 3-1; Sayanika Maji (Del0 bt Prithoki Chakraborti (FCI) 3-0. PTI BS BS AH AH