Vadodara, Jan 7 (IANS) Sarthak Arya and Hardee Patel upset third seeds Snehit Suravajjula and Sayali Wani 5-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10 to advance to the second round of the mixed doubles qualifying, while Anusha Kutumbale upset the experienced Nithya Mani in Group 2 of women’s singles qualifying to stay in hunt for a knockout spot in the WTT Feeder Series 2026 at the SAMA Indoor Sports Complex here on Wednesday.
The inaugural edition of the WTT Feeder Series in Vadodara, presented by Sports Authority of Gujarat, is being hosted by Table Tennis Association of Baroda and implemented by UTT.
In the women’s singles group stage, Anusha kept her nerves in the decider after Nithya had made a strong comeback from two games down to win 11-5, 11-4 9-11, 8-11, 13-11 in Group 2. Nithya had beaten Sammridhi Banik 12-10, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9 in her other group match and Anusha will have to win her second match on Thursday to make it to the knock-out stage.
Meanwhile, Selena Selvakumar sealed a knock out spot from Group 1 after winning both her group matches while wild card entrant Tanishka Kalbhairav was in the drivers’ seat in Group 5 after winning two of her matches. Group 5 and 6 have four players in their group with only the top finisher advancing to the main draw.
In the men’s singles group stage, Kumar Harshit, Sriram Sivam, Abhilash Raval, Balamurugan Rajasekaran and Mehan Senthil are assured of a place in the knockouts after winning both their group matches.
Earlier, the young combination of Dhairya Parmar and Anusha Kutumbale got the better of Rajiv Sahu and Pranati Ramesh 11-5, 5-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8 in first round of mixed doubles qualifying and will now face second seeds Abhinandh Pradhivadhi and Nithya Mani.
--IANS
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