Rajkot, October 14: Top-seeded Madhurika Patkar made a short work of Shweta Parte to sail into the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the 11Even Sports National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here today.
The PSPB paddler defeated her RBI rival 8-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9. Madhurika will next take on Maharashtra’s Shruti Amrute, who accounted for West Bengal’s Moumita Datta 11-5, 5-11, 11-9, 13-11, 11-7 in the round of 16.
For fourth-seeded Manika Batra, who won the singles crown at Indore, it was a setback or sorts as the Tamil Nadu girl Vidya Narasimhan took two games off her before the PSPB girl won 11-4, 5-11, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-8 to go through. Former national champions Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak, too advanced, but Ghatak struggled against Haryana’s Sanya Sehgal. The PSPB woman won 11-6, 9-11, 6-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-3, 11-6. For Mouma it was an easy 4-1 win against RBI’s Pallabi Kundu.
Madhurika was rusty to begin with and it was showing in her first game as Shweta didn’t have to labour much to win it. Nevertheless, the top seed soon settled down and started unleashing her combination strokes which proved to Shweta’s undoing. Unable to contend even with innocuous blocks, the RBI woman lost her grip. She, however, put up some resistance in the fourth and fifth games but it was too late for a comeback.
Moumita, who axed Archana Kamath in group stages yesterday, was found wanting against the left-handed Shruti. Despite restoring parity, the West Bengal girl was unable to cope with the Maharashtra paddlers steady but crisp forehands.
Nikhat Banu, who survived a good scare from Tanisi Kirtani of Goa on the opening day, moved into the pre-quarters after some initial hiccups when she defeated AAI’s Chipia Frenaz 7-11, 14-12, 11-5, 11-6, 11-9. The girls from Gujarat not only took the first game but also managed to extend Nikhat in the second. But the Telangana girl won the second after three deuces which propelled her to the next round. She will run into PSPB’s Ankita Das who blanked Delhi’s Garima Goyal.
Though Mouusumi Paul struggled against RSPB’s Ashlesha Trehan in hter 4-2 win, she will have to contend with PSPB’s Krittwika Sinha Roy in the pre-quarters. Krittwika rolled over Rajasthan’s Priyanka Pareek 4-0.
BORO FIGHTS BACK
The men’s singles draw, which is of 64 players, saw a liberal spread of byes but among the ones that had failed to go past the first round included AAI’s Anirban Ghosh, who was outwitted by West Bengal’s Surajit Das. He played brilliantly and pinned Anirban to a distance from the table which enabled the West Bengal boy stage a fine recovery after being 1-2 down and win 4-2.
Maharashtra’s Anish Ambekar, too, entered the second round of the main draw beating Delhi’s Peeyush Prasad 11-4, 16-14, 11-6, 10-12, 11-9. The young paddler from Mumbai outlasted his Delhi opponent, particularly in the second game, which saw several deuces and both squandering three game points each.
Promising Birdie Boro from PSPB really struggled against State Bank of Patiala’s Vineet Chopra before subduing him 9-11, 5-11, 11-12, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-7. No doubt, Boro had to bring in all his experience to the table but the marathon match certainly enhanced Chopra’s reputation from a non-entity to something special.
In Youth Boys and Youth Girls, the second stage matches of which will starttomorrow, 24 qualifiers from each section made the cut. Manav Thakkar and Archana Girish Kamath have been given the top seeding slots as they lead the ranking table with highest points. Besides, the two had won the titles in the Central Zone events held at Indore just a fortnight ago.
Ronit Bhanja, Arjun Ghosh and Jeet Chandra follow Manav in the Youth Boys seeding list while Sreeja Akula, Manushree Patil and Priyanka Pareek in the You Girls chart.
