Bengaluru paddler Archana Girish Kamath failed to make it to the main-draw going down 2-3 (12-14, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6, 4-11) to junior singles title-winner Moumita Datta in the sports national ranking table tennis championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here on Thursday.
As many as 24 qualifiers emerged winners from as many groups to join the eight top-ranked players in the second stage play from Friday.
The match proved decisive for both Archana and Moumita Datta after they had posted two wins each in group 17.
After a prolonged play and a few deuces, Moumita won the first game on extended points. Upset as she was, Archana was unable to come to terms even in the next which she lost without a fight.
However, Archana fought back well to wrest the initiative from the West Bengal paddler to level scores. But in the decider, Moumita simply outplayed her rival with an attacking game which booked no challenge from Archana.
Krittika Malik of Delhi took the appointed place while surprisingly Sagarika Mukherjee of Railways lost out despite winning against the Delhi girl 3-2 (9-11, 11-4, 11-8, 13-15, 11-5).
What cost her place in the second stage was the loss to Telangana's Naina who beat the RSPB girl 11-9, 11-7, 11-5.
Former national champion K. Shamini got a bye as her group companions from Telangana and Madhya Pradesh failed to turn up for the match.
Even Shruti Amrute of Maharashtra had to just play one match against Puja Paul of North Bengal and the 3-2 win was good enough to see her through. The other player in the group from RBI was absent.
Among others, most groups threw the group leaders as winners while in some the second-placed player grabbed the top slot to enter the second stage .
Similarly, there were quite a few dropouts in men's singles group matches too. With one more round to go in the men's event, a clear picture about the 40 group qualifiers will be known only later on Thursday.
The youth girls and youth boys have been divided into 16 and 24 groups with the group winner qualifying for the next stage. They will be joined by the eight top ranked players from each section.
--IANS
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