Continuing the trend, three other PSPB paddlers joined
Sathiyan in the semifinals as national champion Sanil Shetty accounted for
Sourav Saha 4-1 and Soumyajit Ghosh downed teammate Subhajit Saha 4-2. But the
surprise pack was FCI’s Sarthak Gandhi who stopped the LIC’s juggernaut L.
Sathishwaran 4-1 to make his maiden semifinals.
The Ghosh-Subhajit Saha quarterfinals threw up some
interesting moments with the former national champion struggling a bit. Yet,
Subhajit could not measure up to his rival when it came to winning crucial
points. Moreover, he made quite a few unforced errors at the net and also in
his backhand execution, his Achilles’ heel. Ghosh, who never misses such
glaring weak points in his rival, attacked relentlessly to win the crucial
fourth game after being 8-9. Though he lost to Subhajit the next game, he was up
to the task in the sixth to wind up things in his favour.
Sarthak Gandhi, who had an excellent outing so far, was
meeting L. Sathishwaran in the quarterfinals. It could have been a touch and go
affair, but the LIC lad failed to give his cent percent as he did in earlier
rounds. This only helped Gandhi’s cause who lost just one game after leading
comfortably at 2-0. He soon arrested the slide and finished off in style.
As for Sathiyan, he had a wonderful outing in the
pre-quarters and keeping the good form mowed down Lalarin Puia, who was no
match to Sathiyan on the day.
Mousumi Paul double quickly finished her job of routing
veteran Anindita Chakraborty with a 4-0 verdict with little resistance coming
from the Railway woman. As for Reeth Rishya, she had everything working for
her, leading 2-0 and 6-2 in the third game. Pooja just changed gear and
attacked on both flanks and took the game at 12-10. From there, her fortunes
changed and she never relaxed her grip over the quarterfinals thereafter.
Madhurika Patkar too did not face any difficulty, except for
the one game she lost after her 1-0, but was clever enough to keep her PSPB
opponent Mouma Das engaged which paid rich dividends. She won the next three
games with least points to wrap it up 4-1. But the tricky Poulomi Ghatak,
playing to her strength, indulged in keeping her colleague Neha Aggarwal to win
4-2. Ghatak began badly but pulled up her socks to outwit young
Neha.
Earlier in the day, top women’s seed Ankita Das, No. 5 seed
Manika Batra and, more shockingly, No. 2 men’s seed Harmeet Desai bowed out in
the pre-quarterfinals. The 40-plus Anindita Chakraborty of Railways rolled over
promising youngster Kritwikka Sinha Roy from AAI in straight games to enter the
quarters.
PSPB’s Ankita Das and Manika Batra were scratchy and it was
reflecting in their matches. But more credit should be given to both Mousumi
Paul and Reeth Rishya, also from the PSPB, for the way they exposed their
opponents’ chinks.
Ankita never had a chance after being 0-3 down though she
just about managed to take a game off her rival before Mousumi closed in on her
with a blistering forehand to the edge of the table to sew it up 11-7, 11-9,
11-9, 11-13, 11-7. Manika, on the other hand, had a lot of troubles
against Reeth who began on a wrong note but ended with a good one. After
levelling score at 1-1 Reeth never looked back but for a brief period in the
fifth extended game which she lost 11-13. She was, however, up to the task and
won 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5, 11-13, 11-8.
No doubt, Harmeet Desai was not in his elements, but it was
the way unseeded L. Sathishwaran from LIC played that unsettled the No. 2 seed.
Having proved his worth in earlier rounds and playing extended games, the LIC
paddler upped the ante when it mattered in the last three games to win 4-11,
11-7, 5-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-1, 11-6. L. Sathishwaran totally dominated over his
rival that he allowed just a point in the sixth game to take it to the decider.
Results:
Men (QF): G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Lalrin Puia (PSPB) 4-0 (11-9,
11-3, 11-7, 11-3), Sanil Shetty (PSPB) bt Sourav Saha (PSPB) 4-1 (11-7, 11-8,
11-6, 9-11, 11-6), Soumyajit Ghosh (PSPB) bt Subhajit Saha (PSPB) 4-2 (11-5,
11-5, 5-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-6; Sarthak Gandhi (FCI) bt L. Sathishwaran (LIC)
11-3, 14-12, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7.
Women (QF): Mousumi Paul (PSPB) bt Anindita Chakraborti
(RSPB) 4-0 (11-2, 11-5, 11-8, 11-3), Pooja Sahasrabudhe (PSPB) bt Reeth Rishya
(PSPB) 4-2 (7-11, 5-11, 12-10, 11-1, 11-8, 11-7), Poulomi Ghatak (PSPB) bt Neha
Aggarwal (PSPB) 4-2 (7-11, 11-9, 11-7, 5-11, 11-6, 11-6), Madhurika Patkar
(PSPB) bt Mouma Das (PSPB) 4-1 (11-3, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9).
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