National TT: Ankur Bhattacharjee gets top seed following national champion Manush Shah''s pullout

New Delhi, Sep 9 (PTI) Ankur Bhattacharjee has been given the top billing in men's singles following the withdrawal of national champion Manush Shah in the ongoing National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Thyagaraj Stadium.

Despite bowing out in the quarterfinals at the previous event, Ankur now finds himself seeded No. 1 in the men’s singles, nudging seasoned campaigner G Sathiyan to the second spot.

Delhi-based Payas Jain remains steady at No. 3, while Vadodara runner-up Ronit Bhanja rounds off the top four.

With a draw of 256 players, the men’s event has handed out as many as 92 byes, offering the top 16 seeds a well-timed breather before they launch their campaigns in round two.

In the 128-player women’s knockout, Diya Chitale continues to hold the top spot in seeding.

Silver medallist from Vadodara, Swastika, takes the No. 2 seeding, while former national champion Sutirtha Mukherjee and Yashaswini Ghorpade follow at third and fourth, respectively.

Interestingly, Anusha Kutumbale, despite clinching her maiden women’s singles crown recently, finds herself seeded only sixth. Forty-three byes in this section mean the top-16 women also enjoy a relaxed start.

Among the juniors, P B Abhinand, fresh from his exploits in Skopje where he managed silver in U-19 boys' singles and bronze in mixed doubles, secured the No. 1 seeding after edging out Priyanuj Bhattacharjee on a tie in ranking points.

In contrast, the girls’ seeding saw no such tangle, with Syndrela Das comfortably leading the pack. Both Abhinand and Syndrela, like the other seeds, benefit from first-round byes. PTI BS UNG