CALCUTTA, Nov 4: Seeded players MS Mythili and Arun Selvi have pulled out from the women's competition of the Eastern India Table Tennis Championship which got under way at the Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra here today. Both the players are reported to be unwell. Apart from them, all the other leading Indian women table tennis players will be seen in action here.

Hosts Bengal dominated the qualifiers in all the categories on the first day of the meet on Tuesday. In the women's section, Mili Mazumdar, Sanjukta Sen, Sarmila Dey, Surochita Ganguly all made it to the main round which begins tomorrow. Karnataka's BM Ashwni was the only outstation qualifier in this category.

In the boys' section too, the hosts enjoyed a clean sweep as all the eight qualifiers were from the State. Anirban Tarafdar, Kaustav Bannerjee, Sourav Chakraborty and Arijit Ghosh are among the boys who remain in the fray as qualifiers. In the other sections too, Bengal dominated the day with most of the qualifying spots going to them. Men's top seed Arup Basak of Petroleum Sports Control Board will play the first match of the main draw tomorrow.

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