Daijiworld Media Network – Ranchi

Ranchi, Nov 15: Former national champion Manika Batra suffered an early exit from the women's singles qualifiers at the third National Ranking Table Tennis Championships after losing to Karnataka's Himanshi Chowdhary in a decisive group match on Saturday.

Himanshi staged an impressive comeback to defeat the fancied opponent 9-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8, 11-3 in Group 69, securing her place in the next round. The victory was the biggest upset on the opening day of the competition.

Himanshi's performance also earned her the Tata Power Player of the Day award, along with a cash prize of Rs 10,000.

Manika, who began her campaign with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Monolipi Singha, failed to maintain her momentum against Himanshi. After the first four games were evenly shared, the Karnataka player dominated the deciding game 11-3 to seal the victory.

Meanwhile, former national champion Sreeja Akula successfully progressed to the next stage after winning her group assignments. The RBI paddler registered a convincing 3-0 victory over Bhumika Sahukar in Group 1.

The qualifying rounds also witnessed several closely contested encounters. Ahana Sengupta of Group 15 suffered a 2-3 defeat against FCI's Vanshika Mudgal before recovering to beat Ranjini Saha 3-2.

In Group 19, Hiya Singh lost 2-3 to Naisha Rewaskar but bounced back with a 3-1 victory over Sanchari Chakrabarty. Shaniqa Shahid also recovered from a 1-3 loss to Nithyashree Mani to defeat Sanya Sehgal 3-2 in Group 20.

Preetika P in Group 17 and Mitali Purkar in Group 52 were among the other players involved in closely fought five-game encounters.

In the men's singles qualifiers, international paddler G Sathiyan comfortably won his opening match as he began his campaign in the competition.

With the qualifying rounds scheduled to conclude on Saturday, attention will shift to the main draw on Sunday, when the top 16 seeds in both the men's and women's singles categories are set to enter the competition.