Seasoned paddler Amalraj struggles to get past Mitra

by Shrutee K/DNS

Indore, June 20: Seasoned paddlers Anthony Amalraj and Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, both put to good use their vast experience to record hard-fought wins in their respective men and women singles matches to advance to the round of 32 in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships at Abhay Prashad Indoor Stadium, here, on Tuesday. The third seed Amalraj overcame initial blues and struggled a bit but managed to get past Abhimanyu Mitra of West Bengal by a close 4-3 scoreline.

Amalraj won a tight first game over extra points but unable to cope with the pressure applied by the left-hander Mitra, he lost the next two games before picking himself up to make it 2-2. But, Abhimanyu upped the ante in the fifth game to claim it rather easily and take a 3-2 lead. The third seed showed more determination and with the West Bengal lad committing far too many mistakes it became all the more easier for the seasoned Amalraj to win the next two games on the trot to complete a 12-10, 8-11, 7-11, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8 win.

In another interesting men singles R-64 match, Madhya Pradesh’s Aher Prashant beat Vikram Aditya of Punjab 4-2. He was down 0-2 but went on to win the next four to progress. So did Sougata Sarkar of LIC, who put it across a resolute Vighney Reddy of RBI 11-8, 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 9-11, 10-13, 11-4 and Ananth Devarajan of Tamil Nadu against Birdie Boro as the former won 11-6, 7-11, 5-11, 7-11, 17-15, 11-6, 11-9.

Fourth seed Harmeet Desai, veteran Soumyadeep Roy, Anirban Ghosh, Devesh Karia and Manav Thakkar all moved into the next round while Delhi’s Utkarsh Gupta struggled past Abinay Vijay Babu of Tamil Nadu 11-5, 11-9, 5-11, 4-11, 12-10, 11-7 while Mizoram’s Lalrin Puia, the defensive player, found the going tough against Tamil Nadu’s Subash Mani, winning the match 11-7, 11-9, 11-5, 7-11, 10-12, 11-8.

In an interesting women’s round of 64 match, Railways’ veteran Anindita Chakraborty was playing against Sanya Sehgal, who was almost half her age. The Haryana girl Sanya was in a fantastic position to wrap it up to move into the next round. But at 3-2 and up 10-8 with her serve on, Sanya made the cardinal blunder and pushed against the wily veteran. As if waiting for the chance, she pounced on the chance to kill and then level at 3-3. Then in the decider, pressure was telling on Sanya who didn’t show the determination to stay on as Anindita triumphed 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 6-11, 5-11, 13-11, 11-8.

In other women singles matches, top-seeded Madhurika Patkar was taken some distance by qualifier Kaushani Nath from West Bengal. But the national champion won 10-12, 11-3, 11-5, 4-11. 11-9, 11-7 while Yashini Sivashankar escaped from the jaws of defeat against Delhi’s Garima Goyal, who lost from a winning position as the Tamil Nadu girl triumphed 12-10, 11-7, 6-11, 9-11, 9-11, 14-12, 11-6 in the first quarter, Pallabi Kundu of RBI beat Saswati Ghosh of MP in a nice duel to win 4-2, Himani Chaturvei, also from MP, fought valiantly in a losing cause to bow to West Bengal’s Poulami Das 10-12, 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5 in the second. Except for Pooja in the third quarter all other top players went through the motion while in the fourth, second seeded Suthirtha Mukherjee need to dust off the rust to post a 11-5, 12-19, 5-11, 11-13, 11-2, 11-8 win over Tamil Nadu’s Harshavardini.