Unseeded Mouma to meet Madhurika in final

SILIGURI, October 26, 2013: Some top seeds in the business, including reigning woman national champion K. Shamini, muddied their reputation somewhat and exited from the National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the quarterfinal stage here today.

While all that happened in the quarterfinals, unseeded Mouma Das showed the tenacity to beat No. 2 Pooja Sahesrabudhe 4-3 in the first semi-final late this evening. She will meet in the final Madhurika Patkar, who beat a defiant Divya Deshpande 4-3 in the other semi-final, tomorrow.

In the men’s singles final tomorrow, it will be current national champion Soumyajit Ghosh versus former champ Anthony Amal Raj. In the semi-finals, Ghosh beat Sanil Shetty 11-4, 11-3, 6-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-5 and Amal Raj blanked out Subhajit Saha 11-6, 11-8, 12-10, 11-7.

Pooja, despite trailing 0-3, came back strongly to level 3-3, but in the decider Mouma played a better percentage game to outwit her seeded rival. But Mouma, who had to play the qualifiers, must have nursed a grievance which she perhaps wanted to rectify. And towards that end, she did the spade work in the quarterfinals and stretched it to the semis. Divia, who defied odds, made a fine recovery from 1-3 to restore parity but her fine journey ended when she sent the ball wide on Madhurika’s match-point. 

Earlier, all but one quarterfinal match at the Municipal Stadium went down to the wire with top-seeded K.Shamini losing to unseeded Divya Deshpande 11-5, 11-9, 10-12, 13-11, 5-11, 8-11, 9-11, No. 5 Madhurika Patkar beating No. 4 Poulomi Ghatak 11-7, 11-6, 6-11, 11-3, 12-14, 11-5, and No. 3 Neha Aggarwal of Delhi going down to Mouma Das 14-12, 8-11, 11-6, 7-11, 13-11, 6-11, 9-11. However, No. 2 Pooja Sahesrabudhe survived prevailing over No 7 Ankita Das 9-11, 10-12, 9-11, 11-8, 13-11, 11-8, 13-11.

Shamini had no business to lose the match against Divya who was 2-0 down before pulling up her socks. The Pune girl, playing some astonishing backhand shots, not only surprised the national champion but went beyond expectations. The net result was that Divya, who lost the fourth game 11-13, took complete control at that point to win the last three in style. Rusty Poulomi was struggling to find her normal touch against Madhurika who seized the opportunity well.

On the other hand, Delhi’s Neha Aggarwal was 3-2 ahead but let the 30-year-old Mouma Das off the hook. The experienced Mouma closed in on rather cheekily to spoil Neha’s party. In the decider, Neha was on match point but the latest Arjuna awardee saved that before taking the game to deuce. After that it was Mouma all the way. Pooja’s ball sense and pressure-handling made the difference in her match against Ankita Das, who committed far too many errors at the net.

Unlike the women’s fare, the men’s quarterfinals failed to arouse as much interest as the fancied paddlers accomplished their objectives easily. However, the match between top-seeded Soumyajit Ghosh and left-handed Devesh Karia of Airports Authority of India kept travel-weary national champion in a tight leash. 

Ghosh air-dashed to Kolkata on Thursday night from Gothenburg—he had been competing in the Swedish League—and soon after arriving here yesterday morning had to play three rounds straightaway without any rest. Probably that told upon his game plan against Karia, who took the first game 13-11. But Ghosh regained composure and went 3-1 up before surrendering the next game to Karia, who worked through his powerful forehand shots. However, in the sixth, Ghosh tightened the noose to quickly shut out the Gujarat player.  

In Youth Girls singles, No. 1 Krittwika Sinha Roy, Vedika Garg, Reeth Tennison, Yukti Roshni, Suthirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, Manika Batra and Amrutha Pushpak entered the quarterfinals. In Youth Boys, Sourav Saha, Sushmit Sriram, Sudhanshu Grover, Birdie Boro, Lalrin Puia, Utkarsh Gupta, Sarthak Gandhi and Abhishek Yadav made it to the last eight stage.

Results:

Men: Semifinals: Soumyajit Ghosh bt Sanil Shetty 4-2 (11-4, 11-3, 6-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-5 ), A. Amal Raj bt Subhajit Saha 4-0 (11-6, 11-8, 12-10, 11-7);Quarterfinals: A. Amalraj bt Sourav Saha 4-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-5, 12-10), Subhajit Saha bt G. Sathiyan 4-1 (11-7, 11-7, 4-11, 11-7, 11-3), Sanil Shetty bt T.Nitin 4-1 (11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-2), Soumyajit Ghosh bt Devesh Karia 4-2 (11-13, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9, 7-11, 11-6).

Women: Semifinals: Mouma Das bt Pooja Sahesrabudhe 4-3 (11-7, 11-7, 11-9, 3-11, 8-11, 0-11, 11-8; Madhurika Patkar bt Divya Deshpande 4-3 (11-7, 11-4, 5-11, 15-13, 5-11, 8-11, 11-9; Quarterfinals: Divya Deshpande bt K. Shamini 4-3 (5-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-13, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9), Madhurika Patkar bt Poulomi Ghatak 4-2 (11-7, 11-6, 6-11, 11-3, 12-14, 11-5), Mouma Das bt Neha Aggarwal 4-3 (12-10, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-13, 11-6, 11-9), Pooja Sahesrabudhe bt Ankita Das 4-3 (9-11, 10-12, 9-11, 11-8, 13-11, 11-8, 13-11).

A TTFI Press release