The PSPB paddler won 4-2 but sixth and seven-seeded Devesh
Karia of Gujarat and Rajasthan’s Sudhanshu
Grover, respectively, made their exit in the pre-quarterfinals. Haryana’s Jubin
Kumar accounted for Grover with a 4-1 verdict while PSPB’s Subhajit Saha
thumped Karia 4-0.
Sathiyan had a dream start to lead 2-0 before Sarthak staged
his comeback in the third extended game after four deuces. The Haryana lad won
16-4 but Sathiyan was quick enough to gather himself soon enough to go 3-1 up.
Yet, Sarthak did not give up and managed yet another set off his rival before
Sathiyan closed the shop on him. Jubin, on the other hand, cashed in on his
roaring form to outsmart his PSPB rival Grover despite the latter managing to
take a game off him. Others, including top-seeded Sharath Kamal, No. 2 Anthony
Amalraj, No. 3 Soumyajit Ghosh, No. 4 Harmeet Desai and eight-seed Sanil Shetty
entered the last-eight stages easily.
Struggle for Manika
Top-seed Manika Batra was ill-at-ease right from the word go
against Maharashtra ’s Senhora D’Souza and the
trouble for her continued until the decider. At one time, the Maharashtra
girl was 3-1 up and an upset was very much on cards. Yet the gritty Manika,
despite going into a shell, suddenly opened out to send Senhora scurrying for
points. It was providence that Manika escaped several unforced errors in each
game to take it to the decider.
In the decider, too, she was up 5-3 when they changed sides.
But Senhora fought bravely to square it up at 5-5 then with a slender lead both
saw their chances. However, at 10-7 Manika sent one to the net but in the next
opportunity seized the advantage to enter quartrfinals, much to the relief of
her coach Sandeep Gupta and her mother sitting in the gallery.
Credit to Nikhat
Telangana’s Nikhat Banu and seeded eight must be given full
credit for taking West Bengal ’s Mousumi Paul
the full distance in the pre-quarterfinals. However, Nikhat has to blame
herself for not pressing the advantage when she led 3-1 and letting the West Bengal paddlers a cozy ride from a precarious
position. Like Manika, Mousumi had to win the last three games and that’s where
Nikhat lost her plot. In fact, after a couple of deuce she let Mousumi off the
hook in the fifth game from where her rival was a transformed person as Nikhat
wilted under Mousumi’s continued onslaught.
Fifth-seeded Ankita Das kept herself within reach of her RBI
rival Pallabi Kundu and led 3-2. But Pallabi fought back well in the fifth game
to give herself an even chance in the decider. Ankita, however, was up to the
task and stopped her early to romp home winners.
Mockery of seeding
Making a mockery of the seeding, both unseeded Reeth Rishya
and Krittwika Sinha Roy sent No. 3 and 4 seeds K. Shamini (PSPB) and Divya
Deshpande (Mah) packing in the pre-quarters. Sixth seed Pooja Sahasrabuddhe
struggled to overcome West Bengal’s Ayhika Mukherjee 4-2 and No. 7 Madhurika
Patkar and No. 2 Mouma Das both had easy quarterfinal passages beating Delhi ’s Neha Agarwal and
RBI’s Shweta Parte, respectively, with 4-1 margins.
Shamini was not only served and returned badly but even
failed to counter the normal ones that Reeth had sent back. Several errors at
net only hastened the end of Shami as Reeth grew in confidence from each of her
winners and of the negative points she was awarded with. Divya, too, was
inconsistent with her drives against Krittwika who played far better than she
did the other day in team events.
Results:
Men’s Singles:
Pre-quarterfinals: A. Sharath Kamal bt Lalrin Puia (Miz) 4-1
(12-14, 11-8, 11-6, 11-5, 11-4), Sanil Shetty bt Sourav Saha (PSPB) 4-1 (11-5,
11-13, 11-7, 11-2, 12-10), G. Sathiyan bt Sarthak Gandhi (Har) 4-2 (12-10,
11-5, 14-16, 11-4, 11-13, 11-8), Harmeet Desai bt R. Abhishek (TN) 4-1 (11-7,
11-4, 11-7, 10-12, 11-4), Soumyajit Ghosh bt Arjun Ghosh (WB) 4-1 (11-9, 11-7,
8-11, 11-7, 11-2), Subhajit Saha bt Devesh Karia (Guj) 4-0 (11-4, 15-13, 17-15,
14-12), Jubin Kumar (Har) bt Sudhanshu Grover (Raj) 4-1 (11-5, 7-11, 11-6, 11-6,
11-5), Anothony Amalraj bt Subash Mani (IAAD) 4-0 (11-9, 11-7, 14-12, 11-3).
Women’s Singles:
Pre-quarterfinals: Manika Batra bt Senhora D’souza (Mah) 4-3
(7-11, 11-5, 11-13, 4-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8), Mousumi Paul bt Nikhat Banu (Telg)
4-3 (11-8, 8-11, 10-12, 9-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-4), Ankita Das bt Pallabi Kundu
(RBI) 4-3 (6-11, 11-4, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6), Krittwika Sinha Roy bt
Divya Deshpande (Mah) 4-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-4, 14-12), Reeth Risha bt K. Shamini
(PSPB) 4-0 (12-10, 13-11, 11-8, 12-10), Pooja Sahasrabudhe bt Ayhika Mukherjee
(WB) 4-2 (11-4, 10-12, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6, 11-3), Madhurika Patkar bt Neha
Agarwal (Del) 4-1 (4-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-3, 11-4), Mouma Das bt Shweta Parte
(RBI) 4-1 (11-13, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8).
TTFI release
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