The 76th senior national table tennis championship began on expected lines with Petroleum Sports Promotion Board women becoming the first team to enter the pre-quarter-finals in Puducherry on Monday.
The 76th senior national table tennis championship began on expected lines with Petroleum Sports Promotion Board women becoming the first team to enter the pre-quarter-finals in Puducherry on Monday.
The PSPB women advanced after registering convincing wins over Andhra Pradesh and Bihar 3-0 in Group A.
Top paddlers Poulami Ghatak, Mouma Das and K. Shamini executed the job against Bihar, while Ankita Das and Manika Batra along with Shamini were employed against Andhra.
PSPB men notched up 3-0 wins over Odisha and Telengana and are on the verge of entering Stage 2 from Group A.
Telengana, despite losing to PSPB, could be the second team to qualify for the main draw from the group.
So far, Delhi (in Group B), Gujarat (in Group C), Haryana (in Group D), Maharashtra A ((in Group E) and RSPB (in Group H) are likely to advance. As for Group F, the fight for the top two positions is between Maharashtra B, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, while Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Karnataka have one win each in Group H.
In the women’s section, the most interesting match of the day was between Karnataka and Maharashtra B, last year’s quarter-finalists. Karnataka, driven by new faces Swetha Kumarvel and junior champion Archana Kamath, won 3-2. With matches against Kerala and Tripura, Karnataka should seal their place in the pre-quarters.
Maharashtra, despite the early loss, should qualify as the second team from Group H. North Bengal, West Bengal, Airports Authority of India, Telengana, Delhi have won their respective pool matches and are on course to make the next stage.
