Even before the quarterfinals could get underway late in the evening, three top seeds in the men’s singles and two in the women’s singles fell by the wayside in the fourth UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Ramakotaiah Indoor Stadium here today.
Sourav Saha of PSPB went the distance to beat No. 3 Snehit of AAI 3-2 in a tough pre-quarterfinal battle, while Anthony Amalraj defeated No. 4 Manush Shah relatively easily with a 3-1 verdict and No. 5 Sanil Shetty went down to Ronit Bhanja of the Railways in another clash that went down to the wire. Ronit won 3-2.
Except for the top seed, Manav Thakkar, who blanked out Yashansh Malik of Delhi 3-0, second seed G. Sathiyan and No. 6 A. Sharath Kamal had to endure before outlasting Raj Mondal of RBI and Akash Pal of the Railways to win 3-2, respectively.
Sharath was down 0-2 against Akash Pal before summoning his vast experience to win the last two extended games despite stiff resistance from the Railway’s paddler. The fast-paced match witnessed several long rallies, most of which went the Sharath way.
Second-seed Sathiyan, caught on the wrong foot and trailing 0-2, raised his game to the extent it put enormous pressure on Raj Mondal, who matched stroke for stroke. But Sathiyan stemmed the rot in the third game and continued similarly to subdue his RBI rival.
In contrast, the sixth and seventh women seeds, Moumita Datta and Swastika Ghosh, departed in the pre-quarterfinals and went 2-3 down to Yashini Sivashankar of Tamil Nadu and Anusha Kutumbale of the Railways, respectively. But the two top seeds, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath, who won her first National Ranking title in Vadodara last month, sailed through.
SHAILU EXCELS
Barring Shailu Noorbasha, who accounted for Pooja Sahasrabudhe in the round of 64 with a 3-1 (13-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9) triumph, the other two girls—Guna Samyukta and Ramjali Kajol—failed to go past the first-round hurdle of the main draw.
Samyukta bowed out, losing to Kavyashree Baskar of Tamil Nadu 11-6, 11-6, 11-7, and Ramajali lost 6-11, 6-11, 6-11 to Sweta Parte of RBI.
Shailu faced a tough and experienced Pooja, a former international, and won the extended game on her second game point. But Pooja levelled the score in the next to give a bit of worry to the Andhra girl, who played brilliantly and outlasted Pooja with easy wins in the remaining games.
In the mixed doubles final, Tamil Nadu’s Preyesh Suresh Raj and Selenadeepti Selvakumar combined well to beat the UP-Assam duo of Abhishek Yadav and Trisha Gogoi 3-1 to lift the title.
Results:
Men’s Singles (PQF): Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt Yashansh Malik (Del) 11-7, 11-6, 11-6; Jeet Chandra bt Abhishek Yadav (UP) 6-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-6; Ronit Bhanja (RSPB) bt Sanil Shetty (PSPB) 11-6, 6-11, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10; Anthony Amalraj (PSPB) bt Manush Shah 8-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-9; Sourav Saha (PSPB) bt SFR Snehit (AAI) 11-7, 11-3, 7-11, 9-11, 14-12; A. Sharath Kamal (PSPB) bt Akash Pal (RSPB) 11-7, 7-11, 10-12, 13-11, 14-12; Anirban Ghosh (RSPB) bt Punit Biswas (AAI) 11-7, 11-6, 11-5; G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Raj Mondal (RBI) 5-11, 12-14, 11-2, 11-8, 11-6.
Women’s Singles (PQF): Sreeja Akula (RBI) bt Takeme Sarkar (RSPB) 11-9, 12-10, 11-7; Poymantee Baisya (RSPB) bt Pritha Vartikar (Mah) 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4; Mouma Das (PSPB) bt Shweta Parte (RBI) 11-4, 11-8, 11-6; Sutirtha Mukherjee (RSPB) bt Ditsa Roy (WB) 11-3, 13-11, 8-11, 11-2; Ayhika Mukherjee (RBI) bt Deepika Neelakandan (TN) 11-4, 11-6, 11-7; Yashini Sivashankar (TN) bt Moumita Datta (RSPB) 4-11, 6-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-8; Anusha Kutumbale (RSPB) bt Swastika Ghosh (AAI) 6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9; Archana Kamath (PSPB) bt Oishiki Joardar (Guj) 11-3, 11-9, 11-4.
Mixed Doubles: Final: Preyesh Raj/Selena Selvakumar (TN) bt Abhishek Yadav/Trisha Gogoi (UP-Asm) 11-8, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6.
Semifinals: Preyesh Raj/Selena Selvakumar bt Arjun Ghosh/Kaushani Nath (RSPB) 12-10, 11-7, 11-6; Abhishek Yadav/Trisha Gogoi bt Asif Haque/Nikhat Banu (RBI) 11-6, 11-8, 11-8.
