UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships: U-19 Girls groups wrap up, as knockout stage beckons

New Delhi: With 52 of the 53 group winners in the Under-19 Girls’ category already sealing their places in the knockout draw of the second UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Thyagaraj Stadium, all eyes will be on Group 2 tomorrow. That’s where Divyanshi Bhowmick, riding high after her golden 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, she 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.

Meanwhile, several other youngsters cruised through their groups without much trouble. Delhi’s Sayanika Maji stamped her authority in Group 1, defeating Avneet Kaur of Uttar Pradesh 11-6, 11-6, 11-6 and Sumaiya Sultan of Madhya Pradesh 11-2, 11-6, 11-5. Bengal’s Subhankrita Datta also advanced comfortably, brushing aside UP’s Anokhi Kesari and Delhi’s Tvishaa Lohani with identical ease. Maharashtra’s Hardee Patel capped her group campaign with a straight-games win over Bengal’s Pritha Talukder, and UP’s Avani Tripathi recovered from a first-game slip to outlast Bhavya Rao of MP 9-11, 11-5, 11-2, 11-6.

Elsewhere, Bengal’s Avisha Karmakar and Maharashtra’s Naisha Rewaskar also sealed smooth entries into the knockouts. But not all matches were one-sided. Telangana’s Sushrut Aniyan Anand shocked Sandika Bhattacharjee of NCOE, while Bengal’s Dipannita Saha battled hard to down UP’s Disha in a five-game thriller, winning it 4-11, 11-9, 3-11, 12-10, 11-6 in Group 13.

There were also some interesting turnarounds in the later groups, particularly where four players were involved. Bengal’s Britika Dutta, who began as the third seed in Group 30, stunned group topper Advika Agrawal of MP 11-8, 11-5, 11-6, before defeating Bihar’s Mahi Gupta 11-6, 11-3, 11-3 to strengthen her claim for the knockout draw.

While the Under-19 Girls’ section reached near completion, the men’s and women’s group matches gathered pace on Day 2. Their qualification rounds will conclude tomorrow, after which the top 16 seeds will join the fray, promising another round of high-quality encounters in the race to the main draw.

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