The 86th senior National table tennis championship started off on an expected note, with the favourites sailing through most of the team championship league stage proceedings at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium here.
Men’s defending champion Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) hardly sweated before crushing Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh with an identical margin of 3-0 to enter the knockouts. Barring G. Sathiyan, all the other four PSPB paddlers had a feel of the arena, with A. Sharath Kamal making way for Ankur Bhattacharjee for the latter tie.
Telangana, meanwhile, overcame Andhra Pradesh 3-0 in the clash of the neighbours clubbed together in Group G to improve its chance of entering the round of 16.
The most entertaining tie of the day saw Suhana Saini starring to help Haryana edge past Uttar Pradesh 3-2 in a women’s Group E tie.
Important results: Women: Group A: RSPB bt Goa 3-0, Chandigarh bt J&K 3-0, RSPB bt Chandigarh 3-0.
Group B: PSPB bt Madhya Pradesh 3-0, PSPB bt Assam 3-0, Madhya Pradesh bt Ladakh 3-0.
Group C: Tamil Nadu bt Meghalaya 3-0, Andhra Pradesh bt Manipur 3-0; Tamil Nadu bt Andhra Pradesh 3-0.
Group D: Maharashtra bt Jharkhand 3-0, Maharashtra bt Odisha 3-1.
Group E: Haryana bt Uttar Pradesh 3-2, Uttarakhand bt Daman & Diu 3-1.
Group F: West Bengal bt Pondicherry 3-0, Karnataka bt Bihar 3-0, West Bengal bt Karnataka 3-1.
Group G: Delhi bt Nagaland 3-0, Kerala bt Himachal Pradesh 3-0, Delhi bt TTFI-2 3-0, Kerala bt Nagaland 3-0.
Group H: Gujarat bt Punjab 3-0, Telangana bt Chhattisgarh 3-0, Telangana bt Punjab 3-0.
Men: Group A: PSPB bt Chhattisgarh 3-0, PSPB bt Uttarakhand 3-0.
Group B: RSPB bt Kerala 3-0, RSPB bt Odisha 3-0.
Group C: Delhi bt Himachal Pradesh 3-0, Delhi bt Gujarat 3-0, Pondicherry bt Himachal Pradesh 3-2.
Group D: West Bengal bt TTFI-1 3-0.
Group E: Maharashtra bt Bihar 3-0, Karnataka bt J&K 3-0, Maharashtra bt Karnataka 3-0.
Group F: Tamil Nadu bt Nagaland 3-0, Tamil Nadu bt Madhya Pradesh 3-0.
Group G: Telangana bt Andaman & Nicobar 3-0, Haryana bt Chandigarh 3-0; Telangana bt Andhra Pradesh 3-0.
Published – January 19, 2025 07:55 pm IST
