Rising stars Abhilash Raval of Ahmedabad and Harshil Kothari of Bhavnagar qualified for the main draw of the men’s event at the 4th Gujarat State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament 2021 organised by Surat District Table Tennis Association at Tapti Valley International School in Olpad, Surat from November 12 to 14.
Abhilash, ranked fourth in the junior boys (U-19), topped Group 1 in the men’s singles qualifying round. Abhilash beat Valsad’s Vinit Vaidya 11-6, 11-5, 11-6 before sealing the deal with an 11-3, 11-4, 11-4 win over local boy Parva Sheth.
Harshil, ranked third in the U-19 category, too had smooth sailing in Group 4.
The Bhavnagar lad beat Aryan Shah of Surat 11-5, 11-5, 11-7 before beating Valsad’s Jigar Shah 11-3, 11-7, 11-7. Rajkot’s Jaynil Mehta beat local boy Jay Deputy 11-4, 11-9, 11-5 and Ahmedabad’s Mudit Bansal 12-10, 11-1, 11-6.
Ahmedabad’s Monish Dedhia won against Surat’s Rohit Jadav (11-2, 11-3, 11-2) and Aravalli’s Arman Shaikh (11-13, 11-7, 11-7, 11-5). Both Jaynil and Monish reached the main round.
In the sub junior boys’ (U-15) qualifying, Ahmedabad’s Malav Panchal first beat Surat’s Vivansingh Gharia 11-5, 11-4, 11-7 before recording an 11-8, 12-10, 11-6 win over another Surat boy Angad Jain.
Ahmedabad’s Kaavya Punjabi too moved into the main draw with wins over Bhavnagar’s Sanket Shah 11-9, 11-8, 7-11, 11-9 and Surat’s Yug Parmar 5-11, 11-9, 14-12, 13-11.
Naitik Jain brought some smiles to the local crowd as he moved into the main draw with wins over Kachchh’s Yug Singh 11-3, 11-1, 11-2 and Bhavnagar’s Harshit Joshi 11-8, 12-10, 11-4.
