Suthirtha meets Manika in semifinals

Guwahati, January 19, 2014: Brushing aside a few upsets earlier in the day, top seed and PSPB’s Suthirtha Mukherjee, West Bengal’s No. 2 Krittwika Sinha, No. 4 Manika Batra, also of PSPB, and Andhra Pradesh’s Nikhat Banu, seeded sixth, entered the Youth Girls semifinals of the 75th Junior and Youth National Table Tennis championships here at Deshbakt Tarun Ram Phukan Indoor Stadium on Sunday.

Surprisingly, all quarterfinal matches were one-sided with winners scoring 4-0 triumphs against their opponents. Suthirtha defeated Ayhika Mukherjee and will now take on Manika Batra, who downed Mallika Bhandarkar, in the first semifinal tomorrow. The other semifinal will pit Nikhat Banu against Krittwika Sinha Roy. Nikhat beat Anushree Hazra from West Bengal and Krittwika accounted for PSPB team mate Senhora D’Souza.

But the Youth Boys quarterfinals raised a lot of interests, particularly with top-seed Abhished Yadav dropping a game to unseeded Nishaad Shah of Maharashtra, and K.R. Rohit struggling against Sanish Ambedkar, also of Maharashtra. The latter extended Rohit to the fullest in a duel that went for 40 minutes. Otherwise, it was easy for G. Sathiyan, unseeded here, and Sushmit Sriram of Tamil Nadu, who beat Avik Das and Sudhanshu Grover respectively.

In the morning, Sourav Saha faced his worst defeat in recent times in Youth Boys section as West Bengal’s qualifier Sayantan Dey beat the No. 2 seed 3-2 (11-7, 5-11, 1-11, 11-9, 11-5)in a second round match that went horribly wrong for the PSPB paddler. Saha began losing the first game but came back like a true fighter to win the next three. But then the West Bengal player had nothing to lose and was equally adept to take the fourth game with minimal points. In the decider, however, he completely outplayed his reputed opponent to romp home victors.

Utkarsh Gupta, No. 5 seed, also bowed out in the second round along with team mate Sabhya Virmani, upsetting Delhi’s long-standing reputation. Utkarsh was consumed by another qualifier Avik Das from North Bengal, the latter scoring a 11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 11-2 victory. But Sabhay lost to Maharashtra’s Nishaad Shah, also among top eight, 13-11, 7-11, 7-11, 11-9, 6-11.

The Youth Girls second round also saw No. 3 seed T. Reeth Rishya going down to another West Bengal qualifier and ranked 23, Anushree Hazra 2-3. The PSPB girl started promisingly only to lose her way as Anushree cleaned her up with a 14-12, 4-11, 11-8, 5-011, 15-13 win.

 In Junior Boys, sixth-seed Nishaad Shah of Maharashtra’s journey came to an end as he lost 2-3 (9-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-9, 9-11) to Anas Irshad of Kerala in the second round. However, he defeated Vivek Bhargava of Rajasthan in the Youth section 4-2 to enter the quarterfinals. Earlier, unranked G. Sathiyan had defeated fourth-seed Lalrinpuia 4-1 to move into the quarters. In Junior Boys pre-quarters, second seed Lalrin Puia of PSPBA lost to Tamil Nadu’s K.R. Rohit 2-3, throwing the seeding haywire.

Results: (Quarterfinals):

Youth Boys: Abhishek Yadav bt Nishaad Shah 4-1 (11-6, 11-8, 11-9, 10-12, 11-7), G. Sathiyan bt Avik Das 4-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-5, 11-5), Sushmit Sriram bt Sudhanshu Grover 4-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-7, 12-10), K.R. Rohit bt Sanish Ambekar 4-3 (13-11, 12-10, 10-12, 9-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-9).

Youth Girls: Suthirtha Mukherjee bt Ayhika Mukherjee 4-0 (11-, 11-5, 11-3, 11-6), Manika Batra bt Mallika Bhandarkar 4-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-8, 11-8), Nikhat Banu bt Anushree Hazra 4-0 (11-7, 11-6, 13-11, 11-8), Krittwika Sinha Roy bt Senohora D’Souza 4-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8).