The seeded players had an easy time in the opening round of the youth boys' and girls' sections in the DCPL National-ranking (East Zone) table tennis tournament at the SAI Kaviguru Complex here on Friday.
With the greater part of the day devoted to deciding the qualifiers in the youth and senior men's and women's sections, the main draw matches were pushed back late into the evening.
Earlier on Thursday, Sudhanshu Grover of PSPB Academy and Mallika Bhandarkar of Air India won the junior boys' and girls' titles respectively, beating Avik Das of North Bengal and K. Spoorthy of Andhra Pradesh.
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Costantini optimistic
The good results produced by Indians in the Commonwealth Games has given the country a chance to aim for better performances, feels National coach Massimo Costantini.
“The performances in the Commonwealth Games where India picked up five medals speak for themselves. Our next target should be to break into the elite 24 teams by improving our world rankings,” he said.
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Costantini is here to conduct a “In the men's section, players like G. Sathiyan, Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai are the ones who will form the body of the future Indian sides.
“Ankita Das, Pooja Sahasrabudhe and Neha Agarwal are the young talents in the women's section who are really sincere,” he added.
He also said India can expect more from Achanta Sharath Kamal, who is currently ranked 39 in the world.
“Sharath's graph is still growing and he has the ability to give much more,” said Costantini wishing the player keeps his focus to realise the best of his “potential.”
The results:
Boys: Junior (final): Sudhanshu Grover (PSPB-A) bt Avik Das (NB) 14-12, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 12-14, 12-10.
Youth (first round): C.P. Karthik (Kar) bt Arkabrata Kundu (WB) 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7; S. Prasanna (TN) bt Subhra Roy Chowdhury (WB) 7-11, 11-6, 15-13, 11-8; Chandra Sekhar (RSPB) bt Siladitya Nag (RSPB) 11-9, 12-14, 11-9, 11-5; Mohit Verma (PSPB-A) bt R. Anandaraj (TN) 11-9, 11-7, 11-8; A.R. Navneet (Kar) bt Ankur Basak (WB) 11-9, 11-5, 6-11, 11-7; Pranshu Gupta (Dli) bt S. Sundar (TN) 9-11, 11-5, 11-5, 12-10; E. Prabhakaran (TN) bt Devdatta Francis (Mah) 11-3, 11-7, 11-6; Avik Das (NB) bt Subham Ojha (PSPB-A) 11-9, 11-9, 11-9.
Girls: Junior (final): Mallika Bhandarkar (AI) bt K. Spoorthy (AP) 11-4, 7-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11-4.
Youth (first round): S. Krithicka (TN) bt Nikita Rotela (Dli) 11-6, 11-1, 11-3; Medha Moitra (NB) bt Samatha Pruthy (Ori) 11-8, 14-16, 11-5, 11-9; C.S. Priyadarshini (TN) bt Trisha Das (WB) 12-10, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6; Fernaz Chippia (Guj) bt Tania Mondal (Jkd) 11-5, 7-11, 11-4, 11-4; N. Vidya (TN) bt Gargi Nag (WB) 11-7, 11-7, 12-14, 13-11; Nirja Trivedi (Guj) bt Oishwaryya Deb (NB) 6-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-9; Tekme Sarkar (NB) bt Nupur Walve (Mah) 11-5, 11-5, 11-8; Priyanka Saha (WB) bt Maitryee Bailoor (Kar).