Second-seed Pandey bows out

GUWAHATI, Nov 16: Second-seeded Siddhesh Pande of Maharashtra bowed out in the first round of the main draw when Petroleum Sports Promotion Board’s Jeho Himkulhpuingheta beat him 3-1 in the Junior Boys section of the the tiol Ranking  Table Tennis Championships at the Deshbakhta Tarunram Phukan Indoor Stadium here today.  while two other seeds, No. 7 Abhimanyu Mitra of West Bengal and No. 8 Ashwin Subramanian of Maharashtra also joined the procession. .

In comparison, only two seeds—No. 6 Abiya Ramesh of Tamil du and No. 8 Shallu Noorbasha of Andhra Pradesh—fell by the wayside in the Junior Girls category while all the top seeds survived the day. However, it was a touch-and-go affair for No. 3 seed Moumita Datta of West Bengal and No. 4 seed Sreeja Akula of Telanga who had to endure their rivals’ onslaught before overcoming them.

Jeho, the boy from Mizoram who represents the academy at Ajmer, handled Siddesh Pande tactfully and easily beat him in the first round of the main draw. Jeho, who is an attacking player, found the rhythm going for him right from the word go and the Junior Boys title winner at Thane (West Zone) could not sustain the speedy forehands of the academy boy and wilted under pressure. But Jeho could not go any further as he went down in the pre-quarter fils to Akash Chowdhury of West Bengal, who blanked him out 3-0.