Gupta upsets top seed in Under-17 table tennis

Eighth seed Ritvik Gupta stunned top seed Sarthak Arya in the youth boys under-17 pre-quarterfinals at the UTT Nationals, while top girls’ seeds Syndrela Das and Divyanshi Bhowmick advanced

Hyderabad: On a day when the balance of power seemed ripe for disruption, eighth seed Ritvik Gupta of Jammu and Kashmir delivered the biggest jolt to the Youth Boys Under-17 draw, toppling top seed Sarthak Arya of Odisha 3-2 in a tense pre-quarterfinal at the first UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the SAMA Indoor Stadium in Vadodara on Tuesday.

Ritvik’s win set the tone for an afternoon in which several higher-ranked players struggled to contain hungry challengers determined to rewrite the script.

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In contrast, the under-17 girls’ draw stayed truer to the seedings. Top two seeds Syndrela Das and Divyanshi Bhowmick, along with two others among the top eight, navigated their pre-quarterfinal hurdles to keep their title quests alive.

The results: Under-17: Quarterfinals: Youth boys: Ritvik Gupta (J&K) bt Sarthak Arya (Ods); Dhairya Rawat (PSPBA bt Bhaskar Singh Sugra (Del) 6-11,11-5, 13-11, 11-9; Sahil Rawat (PSPBA) bt Atharva Nawarange (Kar) 11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10; M. Nikhil Menon (TN) bt Soham Mukherjee (WB) 4-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-6.

Youth girls: Syndrela Das (WB) bt Naisha Rewaskar (Mah) 6-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11-9; Ananya Muralidharan (TN) bt Ahona Ray (WB) 11-7, 11-4, 11-6; Kavya Bhatt (Mah) bt Prisha Goel (Del) 11-7, 11-8, 11-6; Divyanshi Bhowmick (Mah) bt Tushti Sood (Del) 11-7, 11-8, 11-4.