Nilesh Vaid bites the dust

Seeded paddlers, led by top seed Chetan Baboor of the Petroleum Sports Control Board, advanced into the second round of the men's singles in the 62nd National and Inter-state table tennis championships in Cuttack on Tuesday.

Baboor beat Indian Bank's J Selvakumar 21-16, 21-12, 19-21, 21-16 to advance.

Third seed S Raman (PSCB), fourth seed Subhajit Saha (PSCB), Shivaji Dutta (RMH), Ranabir Das (Rlys--8th), Subham Choudhury (Rlys-12th), K S Chakravorty (TN--13th), Anirban Nandi (Bengal--14th) and Sunil Babras (Indian Bank--15th) also moved into the second round, registering easy victories over their opponents.

The only seeded player to fall by the wayside was tenth seed Nilesh Vaid (Rlys), who lost to Delhi's Himanshu Kala 12-21, 14-21, 9-21.

The knock-out round commenced on Tuesday after toppers of 56 groups were identified following round-robin matches. They were joined by the eight top seed players.

In the women's category, the top players in 40 groups had also been identified who were joined by eight top seeds in the knock-out round.