With most top players preferring to conserve their energy for singles, it has become a fashion for paddlers to not take the doubles events seriously even in national championships. This has made the earnest efforts of the federation, which is trying to find ‘set’ pairs to help India win medals at CWG in April or the Asiad, a few months later, a futile exercise.

With hefty prize money on offer for singles—doubles win too carry moderate prize purses—all the top guns’ focus is on singles alone and, as a result, the doubles events have been reduced in importance as one found at the 79th edition of the 11Even Sports Senior Nationals at the Mega Sports Complex at Khelgaon here today.

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For instance, second seeded G. Satahiyan and Manika Batra, representing PSPB conceded their mixed doubles match last night after giving their entry citing vague reasons. In fact, the pair wanted to withdraw even before the matches began, but the competition department refused their pullout the pair decided to concede their second-round tie on the table to the Madhya Pradesh duo of Saiel Wadwekar and Kushi Jain.

If only the PSPB’s top combine had not sent entry, the second-seed position would have gone to a deserving and we would have watched interesting matches. But the last-minute ‘pullout’ has thrown the fourth quarter wide open for lesser pairs to walk closer the medal stage, if not into the medal round.

Top-seeded West Bengal combination of Arjun Ghosh and Suthirta Mukherjee failed to survive the trend as Siddhesh Pandey and Senhora D’Souza of Maharashtra moved into the quarterfinals. The exit of the first and second seeded Sathiyan and Manika has bolstered the chances of the Maharashtra pair which, if it continues the form, should take home a good harvest of medals.

Draw of 128 in men singles

Meanwhile, the men singles group matches threw up 126 players from 63 groups after the federation allowed qualification of two players instead of the one until last year to provide opportunities. The men draw will be of 128 but with the total coming to 142, including top 16 seeded players, there will be a preliminary round of the main draw in which 28 players who had finished second in the last 28 groups will clash to make the cut with just 14 slots available.

The next two days’ schedule will be hectic for players as they will be playing doubles—men, women and mixed—and singles in both sections with at least five rounds per day. That may also be the reason for some players to opt out of doubles. But then there are clever players who have skipped the doubles altogether and both Sathiyan and Manika could have very well done that.

RESULTS (Pre-quarterfinals):

Mixed Doubles: Siddhesh Pande-Senhora D’Souza (MHR) bt Arjun Ghosh-Suthirta Mukherjee (WB) 4-11, 11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 13-11, Akaash Nath-Ankita Das (NB) bt Abhishek Yadav-Suhana Narjinary 11-13, 11-7, 11-6, 11-8, Nitin Thiruvengadam-Reeth Rishya (TN) bt Jeet Chandra-Kaushani Nath (WB) 11-1, 11-8, 4-11, 8-11, 11-6, Mandar Hardikar-Shruti Amrute (MHR) 12-10, 11-7, 11-8, Raj Mondal-Sreeja Akula (RBI) bt Anirban Nandi-Shreya Ghosh (RSPB) 11-9, 11-8, 11-9, Soumyajit Ghosh-Suhana Saini bt Omkar Torgalkar-Madhurika Patkar (MHR) 11-8, 11-6, 2-11, 10-12, Jubin Kumar-Riti Shankar (HRN) bt Zubin Taraporewalla-Mamata Prabhu (MHR) 7-11, 11-5, 8-11, 12-10, 11-5.