Ghosh, Shamini get top singles slots

Dharwad, August 25, 2013: Soumyajit Ghosh in men’s singles and K. Shamini in the women’s singles have been given the top slots in the seeding list at the end of the qualification matches in both sections of the LIC-sponsored Institutional Table Tennis Championships at the District Indoor Hall here today.

Ghosh, who is the national men’s champion, leads the men’s main draw which consists of 64 players, representing various Petroleum units as well as 18 states. K. Shamini, who is the women’s title-holder at the Raipur national early this year, is at the top of the women’s draw ladder.  Incidentally, both the players represent the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB).

However, as compared to the women’s main draw, which is of 32 players with all top eight seeds coming from PSPB, the men’s draw has at least two seeds—Aman Balgu from the Railways and Sourav Chakraborty from Haryana—from other than the Petroleum units. Though this may bolster the confidence of Balgu and Chkraborty over the rest from other states, seeding could be the Damocles’ sword hanging over their heads.

Young Sanil Shetty, who has had a brilliant year up to the national championships, has been seeded No. 2. But Soumyadeep Roy, the veteran PSPB who gave a goby to the team championships here, has been seeded behind him at No. 3. Unfortunately, Anthony Amalraj who won his maiden national singles title at Lucknow two years ago has been pushed to the No. 7 slot, just a place before Aman Balgu, who played a wonder match for RSPB yesterday.

Last year’s runner-up at the Raipur nationals, Poulomi Ghatak, has been seeded second behind Shamini. In fact, Poulomi, who last played in January, has been out of action for almost seven months owing to an injury. Yet, she has maintained her ranking, thanks to a fine performance last season, to be seeded higher than others. Poulomi has, however, had avoided the team events here to concentrate on singles, which is a prize money event. Madhurika Patkar and Ankita Das are following each other in the seeding list at No. 3 and 4, respectively.

All the seeded players in both the sections will play their first round matches later this evening after the qualification matches that got over in the morning.

As for the mixed doubles, the clash will between two superior PSPB pairs for the gold medal on Monday evening. In the afternoon today, Sanil Shetty and Manika Batra defeated the husband-wife duo from PSPB, Subhajit Saha and Nandita Saha 11-6, 11-7, 6-11, 14-12. At table No. 1 Jubin Kumar and Neha Aggarwal accounted for the other PSPB pair Harmeet Desai and Reeth Rishya 2-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-6. Both the matches were devoid of any thrills as against the fine display put up by the winnings teams.

Seeding List:

Men: 1. Soumyajit Ghosh, 2. Sanil Shetty, 3. Soumyadeep Roy, 4. Harmeet Desai, 5. Sourav Chakraborty (Haryana). 6. Jubin Kumar, 7. Anthony Amalraj, 8. Aman Balgu (RSPB).

Women: 1. K. Shamini, 2. Poulomi Ghatak, 3. Madhurika Patkar, 4. Ankita Das, 5. Pooja Saharasabudhe, 6. Neha Aggarwal, 7. Divya Deshpande, 8. Mosusmi Paul.