Utkarsh, Anirban enter quarters, show fighting qualities

Panaji: Padasak Tanviriyavechakul from Thailand has been top-seeded in the junior boys singles while it is his compatriot Tamolwan Khetkhuan who has been accorded the top slot in the junior girls in the ongoing Indian Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis Championships at the Mukherjee Stadium on Thursday.

The Thai girl, who has got a first-round bye, will be seen in action after her qualification but Padasak who was not so fortunate, had no difficulty in putting it across India`s Birdie Boro to stamp his authority. The Thai won 11-6 11-8 11-8 11-4 to send the right signals to his rivals. Out of the 13 Indian boys, only five made it to the main draw, but just three survived the first round grind to go through to the quarterfinals. Abhishek Yadav defeated Yin Jin Yuan of Singapore 4-2 (11-8 8-11 2-11 11-3 11-8 11-4) and will run into Iran`s Hamed Basht Bavi. The latter was stretched by India`s Nishaad Shah which the former won 4-2. But two matches stood out for good rallies and intensity as Anirban Ghosh overcame a stiff Ming Han Maxxe Tay of Singapore 4-2 (11-6 11-7 7-11 10-12 13-11 11-3) and Utkarsh Gupta downed Arman Hajiei of Iran with a similar verdict (11-6 11-9 11-4 7-11 7-11 11-7). In the Junior Girls, Aishwarya Pathak and her sister Soundarya entered the quarterfinals with similar score line of 4-1 against Sagarika Mukherjee and Archana Kamath, respectively. In fact, the siblings even scored victories of 11-9 11-8 5-11 11-8 11-7 each, indicating a pattern to their games. No. 2 seed Suthirtha Mukherjee will take on Soundarya while Aishwarma meet Ayhika Mukherjee, who got a first-round bye, like Suthritha, in the main draw. Oishwarya Deb too received bye in the first round along with Riti Shankar, who takes on top seed Tamolw tomorrow. With limited entries in both the Cadet Boys and Girls sections, the main draw events, which start with quarterfinals, are slated to begin only tomorrow. However, the Cadet Girls main draw looks to be an India dominated one with five Indians and lone Singaporean in Hui il Tay.