U-19 girls'' groups conclude, all eyes on knockouts

New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) The group stage in the Under-19 girls’ category of the second UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships concluded at the Thyagaraj Stadium here on Monday, with 52 of the 53 group winners sealing their places in the knockout stage.

All eyes will be on Group 2 on Tuesday where Divyanshi Bhowmick, riding high after her doubles triumph in the Under-15 category with Tamil Nadu’s Ananya Muralidharan in the WTT Youth Star Contender Skopje (Macedonia), is expected to wrap up proceedings.

Divyanshi will play back-to-back matches against Diva Ahuja of Haryana and Mohana Shree of Pondicherry.

While these contests are essentially a formality given her current form and confidence, she still needs to complete the task on the table.

Once through, she would top her group and slotted into positions 9-16 in the main draw.

Her doubles partner, Ananya, however, faces no such qualification hurdle.

As one of the top eight seeds, Ananya has earned a direct berth into the main draw, her seeding determined by ranking points.

Together with the 53 group winners, the eight seeds will make up the 64-player knockout stage, setting the stage for intense battles ahead.

Delhi's Sayanika Maji, Bengal’s Subhankrita Datta, Maharashtra’s Hardee Patel, and UP’s Avani Tripathi advanced comfortably from their groups.

Bengal's Avisha Karmakar and Maharashtra’s Naisha Rewaskar also cruised through, while Telangana’s Sushrut Aniyan Anand upset Sandika Bhattacharjee (NCOE).

Bengal’s Dipannita Saha had to fight hard before overcoming UP’s Disha 4-11, 11-9, 3-11, 12-10, 11-6 in Group 13.

There were surprises too, with Bengal's Britika Dutta, seeded third in Group 30, defeating group topper Advika Agrawal of MP 11-8, 11-5, 11-6 before easing past Bihar’s Mahi Gupta.

With the U-19 girls section almost complete, group matches in the men’s and women’s events gathered momentum.

Their qualification rounds will finish on Tuesday, after which the top 16 seeds will enter the competition. PTI TAP DDV