Saturday, August 1, 2015

Top seeds fall; Harmeet gets a scare from showstopper Anirban

New Delhi, August 1: National champion Soumyajit Ghosh found an easy meat in unseeded Sudhanshu Grover to join Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty and Anthony Amalraj in the men’s singles semifinals, but top-seed G. Sathiyan bowed out in the quarterfinals of the RSPB-hosted 45th All India Inter-Institutional Table Tennis Championships at the Thyagraj Stadium here today.

Ghosh beat Grover 4-1, Harmeet overcame Anirban Ghosh 4-3, Sanil Shetty downed Devesh Karia 4-2 and Amalraj beat Sathiyan 4-2.

But what turned out to be the match of the day was the one between showstopper from West Bengal, Anirban Ghosh, and PSPB’s Harmeet Desai. The latter was definitely in greater trouble, yet it was his experience that stood him in good stead after Anirban failed to pressure the gas pedal in the second when he led 10-7 to go 2-0 up.  

Seizing the chance, Harmeet won the game to come on level and gain in confidence. From there, fortune shifted from one end to another and in the decider, Anirban succumbed to the experience of Harmeet. But both played excellent games, not afraid of going for fast-paced shots and exploiting the angles very well. Anirban’s down-the-line winners were even applauded by Harmeet.

On the show court, Sathiyan started well only to surrender the initiative to Amalraj, who had to play the qualifiers after having missed the entire last season. Amalraj, as if on cue, played true to his self and executed bold shots to outwit Sathiyan in the fourth game. After that it was Amalraj all the way, though he won both the fourth and fifth games with minimum points. In the sixth, Amalraj didn’t have to much of an effort.
After the fall of top two seeds, Mouma Das, who is also the current national champion, and Pooja Sahasrabudhe, the field was left open for lesser seeds that made most of the occasion. Moving into the semifinals were No. 8 Madhurika Patkar, No. 4 Manika Batra, No. 3 Ankita Das and unseeded K. Shamini.

Top seed Mouma was toppled in the morning by qualifier Shweta Parte of RBI who won 12-10, 11-7, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9. No. 2 seed Pooja followed suit, going down to another qualifier from RSPB Rupsa Bhattacharya 3-2. But Pooja, unlike Mouma, did put up some fight before bowing out. Rupsa won 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 2-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7).  The Railways women, after being down 1-3, came back nicely to beat her fancied rival.

As for the quarterfinals, Madhurika had it easy against Railways’ Shreya Ghosh, winning the match 4-1 while Mankia struggled to overcome AAI’s Nikhat Banu 4-2. But Ankita had to gather all her experience to beat RBI’s Krittwika Sinha Roy 4-3. In fact, Krittwika had everything going for her until the sixth game where Ankita managed to win all those big points, including some negative ones, which in the ultimate analysis proved crucial. Once the Silliguri girl equalled the score, things became rather easy for Ankita who shut out her opponent without any difficulty in the decider.

Unseeded K. Shamini could not find her rhythm going straightaway and it was telling on her game. However the former national champion, playing from her memory and experience, defeated AAI’s Amrutha Pushpak, who fought out really well, 4-2.

Results:
Men’s Singles: Quarterfinals: Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) bt Shreya Ghosh (RSPB) 4-1 (11-9, 11-5, 7-11, 11-2, 11-4), Manika Batra (PSPB) bt Nikhat Banu (AAI) 4-2 (10-12, 11-5, 11-5, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7), Ankita Das (PSPB) bt Krittwika Sinha Roy (RBI) 4-3 (9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 6-11, 11-4, 8-11, 11-2), K. Shamini (PSPB) bt Amrutha Pushpak (AAI) 4-2 (11-7, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-4).

Women Singles: Quarterfinals: Anthony Amalraj (PSPB) bt G. Sathiyan (PSPB) 4-2 (7-11, 13-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7), Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Anirban Ghosh (WB) 4-3 (5-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8, 5-11, 11-5), Sanil Shetty (PSPB) bt Devesh Karia (CRSB) 4-2 (11-7, 7-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11-3, 12-10), Soumyajit Ghosh (PSPB) bt Sudhanshu Grover (PSPB) 4-1 (5-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-5, 11-8).

TTFI Press release

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