Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 21 (PTI) Paddler Harmeet Desai got the top billing in men’s singles in the second UTT National Ranking Championships, which got underway here on Saturday.

With Gnanasekaran Sathiyan and Manush Shah, the two top-ranked players not competing, Harmeet, who is third on the national ranking chart and the top-ranked Indian in the world, has got the top seeding.

Manav Thakkar and Achanta Sharath Kamal follow Harmeet in the seeding list and will be seen in action on Sunday when the main draw matches commence.

In the two rounds of qualification matches that took place on Saturday, PB Abhinand of Tamil Nadu took the top spot in Group 1 beating Delhi’s Aadarsh Om Chhetri, 14-12, 11-6, 6-11, 11-5 and then subdued Kerala’s AS Amal 11-9, 11-3, 11-2 to book his place in the second stage of the draw.

In other groups, top-ranked players inched closer to securing qualification berths with a win each.

In Group 3, Ranjith Benny played a brilliant tie against Vishesh Rastogi of Madhya Pradesh, winning 3-2 (11-8, 12-14, 6-11, 11-6, 11-4), which put him at par with former National junior champion Siddesh Pande of Maharashtra, who thrashed Rastogi 11-3, 11-1, 11-5.

The winner of the match between Pandey and Benny will qualify for the main draw from the group.

Anukram Jain of RSPB, Ali Mohammed of Telangana and Surajit Das of Bengal struggled before outwitting their rivals to keep their qualification chances alive.

Anukram beat Anshuman Hazarika of Assam 11-4, 11-5, 11-13, 12-10, while Karnataka’s Harish Kusel stretched Ali in their Group 13 clash.

But Ali, down 0-2, staged a fine comeback to win 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5.

Surajit faced a tough challenge from another Karnataka lad, Abhinav K Murthy, before emerging a 3-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-4, 14-12 winner.

In women’s singles, the group participants have played their first-round matches. They will complete two more rounds before group qualifiers emerge.

Source: PTI News