Pudhucherry, January 16, 2015: Top-seed Mouma Das overcame RBI’s
Krittwika Sinha Roy 4-2 to enter the semifinals, while No. 7 Ankita Das upset
No. 2 seed Pooja Sahasrabudhe by the same margin the 76th Senior Nationals
at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here today. But it was rather easy for K.
Shamini who accomplished a clinical 4-0 victory over Manika Batra. In the first
semifinal tomorrow, Mouma will take on Shamini while Ankita will meet
Poulami Ghatak, who downed Neha Aggarwal 4-2, in the other semifinal.
It was a 4-0 verdict in three of men’s quarterfinals, with
No. 1 seed G. Sathiyan beating Tamil Nadu’s Nitin Thiruvengadam, Harmeet Desai
downed Soumyadeep Roy and Soumyajit Ghosh disposing of Haryana’s Jubin Kumar.
In the last quarterfinal, however, giant killer Raj Mondal from RBI accounted
for sixth-seed Abhishek Yadav 4-1.
But the biggest news of the day was Haryana’s Jubin Kumar
sending reigning national champion and No. 3 seed Sanil Shetty packing in the
men’s singles pre-quarterfinals. Jubin won 4-3 (7-11, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7,
11-9, 11-8). No. 2 seed Devesh Karia of Gujarat, who had a wonderful outing
this season, also fell by the wayside, losing to qualifier Raj Mondal from West Bengal who beat him 4-1.
Earlier, another former national champion Anthony Amalraj
bowed out in the second round of the main draw, losing to eighth seed Sushmit
Srirarm, after comfortably leading 3-1. Sriram also won 4-3 (11-9, 7-11, 7-11,
8-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-8).
In women’s pre-quarterfinals, all but fifth and sixth seeded
paddlers went out of reckoning. Both No. 5 and No. 6 seeds, Mousumi Paul, who
gave a scare to former national champion K. Shamini, lost 3-4 and No. 6
Madhurika Patkar went down to unseeded Nehal Aggarwal 3-4.
Of all the upsets on the day, Sanil Shetty’s must hurt the
Petroleum player the most as he was not only having a smooth ride but was even
expected to defend the title he won at Patna last year. What befell on him, no
one knows, including the attacking and stylish left-hander himself. But the
credit must go to Jubin for his perseverance and change of game plan from the
fourth game.
Woefully out of the match and down 0-3, the Haryana lad
played a mesmerizing game—superbly working on the angles and catching Shetty on
his somewhat weak forehand and often forcing him into errors. In fact, Shetty
kept pushing Jubin away from the table and it worked well for him in the first
three games. The match-point shot, a curving-in forehand exemplified Jubin’s
fantastic play.
However, no one would have thought reversals for Shetty as
he had a very good rhythm going right from the word go. Yet, Jubin was up to
his opponent and played his forehand and backhand with equal felicity.
Receiving well, the Haryana southpaw took three sets to
realize his folly. Timely advice from team mate Mohit Verma brought about the
change as one could see his slowing down the game. Unable to cope with the
slowness, Shetty faulted even on his reliable forehand shots and, cashing in on
his mistakes, Jubin kept progressing.
Having accomplished the first task of restoring parity, he
had an open mind going into the decider. Shetty had an early advantage but the
Haryana lad nullified it quickly and kept himself well ahead of his rival.
Shetty, however hard he tried, could not do much against a vigilant Jubin.
“He was attacking well and I needed to slow him down since I
was able to receive him well,” said Jubin after the match. “I am happy I forced
him into his forehand shots where he was fumbling a bit today.”
Earlier in the day, one witnessed yet another show of grit
and courage as No. 8 seed Sushmit Sriram pulled out what was a fine upset
against Amalraj. Though the former national champion was not seeded here—he had
to play the qualifiers to get into the main draw—he was expected to get over
the line against the Tamil Nadu boy. Sushmit, having sized up his rival and
serving well, kept Amalraj on tenterhooks. It forced a visibly upset Amalraj
into more errors and only helped the Tamil Nadu boys’ cause.
Sathiyan warned
Even No. 1 seed G. Sathiyan struggle to get past a disciplined
West Bengal’s Sougata Sarkar 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6. The match,
played at the show court, also saw some unpleasant exchanges between chair
umpire and Sathiyan, who had to be yellow-carded for his misbehaviour. Luckily
for Sathiyan, the umpire should have red-carded him for questioning his
authority on calling a ‘let’.
Results:
Men’s Singles (Quarterfinals): G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Nitin
Thiruvengadam 4-0 ( 11-3, 11-4, 11-4, 11-8), Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Soumyadeep
Roy (PSPB) 4-0 (12-10, 11-6, 11-4, 11-9), Soumyajit Ghosh (PSPB) bt Jibin Kumar
(Har) 11-7, 11-9, 14-12, 11-5), Raj Mondal (RBI) bt Abhishek Yadav (Raj) 4-1
(5-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-9, 11-8).
Women Singles (Quarterfinals): Mouma Das (PSPB) bt Krittwika
Sinha Roy (RBI) 4-2 (12-10, 11-2, 14-16, 11-6, 10-12, 14-12), K. Shamini (PSPB)
bt Manika Batra (PSPB) 4-0 (11-5, 11-0, 11-3, 11-7), Poulami Ghatak (PSPB) bt
Neha Aggarwal (Del) 4-2 (11-7, 9-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-6), Ankita Das (PSPB)
bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe (Mah-A) 4-2 (11-9, 11-5, 11-8, 6-11, 10-12, 11-8).
A TTFI Press release
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