Sharath retires after back pain; Sathiyan, Manika sail through
Surat, September 23: Gujarat’s poster boys Harmeet Desai and Manush Shah stormed into the semifinals of the Men’s Singles table tennis with slightly contrasting wins in the 36th National Games here on Friday.
Local boy Manav Thakkar, however, ran into top seed G Sathiyan of Tamil Nadu to fall by the wayside in another quarterfinal.
The trio had thrilled the packed crowds at the PPDU Indoor Stadium on Day 1 and 2 of the competition, easing to the Men’s Team gold.
Surat’s Harmeet was at his attacking best in his quarterfinal, thrashing Maharashtra’s Deepit Patil 4-0. He will take on Sathiyan for a place in the final on Saturday.
Manush, though, had to recover from a two-set deficit to get the better of Fidel Syravajjula 4-2. Manush looked out of depth at the start, going down 3-11. He fought valiantly but lost the second too 11-13.
Thereafter, however, he got into his groove and deftly countered Fidel to win the next four sets.
The day’s highlight was the fast-paced encounter between Manav and Sathiyan. Highly rated Manav responded in kind to the top seed’s aggressive style of play but just could not crack his defence, especially when it mattered most.
He lost 1-4 but won the hearts of the boisterous kids in the stadium
In a big setback, much-admired Sharath Kamal retired due to back pain. He was leading 11-7, 12-10, 11-8, 6-1 at that stage and was just a few steps away from sealing his place in the semis.
Earlier, in Women’s Singles, Reethrishya Tennison was the only player among the top four seeds to miss out on a semi-final berth, capitulating to the experienced Sutirtha Mukherjee.
Sutirtha, who represented India at the Tokyo Olympics, also avenged her loss to the fourth-seeded Reeth in the team events by clinching the Last Eight-round encounter 3-1.
It looked like third seed Diya Chitale would also join her statement on the sidelines as she was pushed to the brink by Haryana’s Suhana Saini. Both players engaged in many fast-paced rallies in their seven-set encounter but in the end it was Diya who prevailed.
In the other quarterfinals, top seed Manika Batra and second seed Sreeja Akula registered convincing wins over their respective opponents to book their semifinal berths.
Important Results:
Men’s singles (QF):
G. Sathiyan (TN) bt Manav Thakkar (Guj) 11-7, 11-8, 8-11, 14-12, 13-11; Harmeet Desai (Guj) bt Deepit Patil (Mah) 11-3, 11-6, 11-2, 11-9; Manush Shah (Guj) bt Fidel Rafeedue Snehit Syravajjula (Tel) 3-11, 11-13, 11-7, 11-9, 12-10, 11-9; Soumyajit Ghosh (Har) bt Sharath Kamal (TN) 11-7, 12-10, 11-8, 6-1 (retd.)
Women’s singles (QF):
Manika Batra (Del) bt Krittwika Sinha Roy (Guj) 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-4; Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) bt Reethrishya Tennison (Mah) 11-9, 12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 11-9; Diya Chitale (Mah) bt Suhana Saini (Har) 11-5, 4-11,11-7, 3-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-9; Akula Sreeja (Tel) bt Ayhika Mukherjee (WB) 11-4, 11-6, 11-5, 11-4
Men’s Doubles (QF):
Harmeet Desai/Manav Thakkar (Guj) bt Sudhanshu Grover/Payas Jain (Del) 11-8, 11-8, 11-5; Arjun Ghosh/Anirban Ghosh (WB) bt Soumyajit Ghosh/Jubin Kumar (Har) 11-7, 11-7, 11-1; Manush Shah/Ishaan Hingorani (Guj) bt Sarthak Gandhi/Wesley Do Roserio (Har) 12-10, 11-9, 11-8; Jeet Chandra/Ronit Bhanja (WB) bt Sanil Shetty/Ravindra Kotiyan (Mah) 11-7, 11-5, 11-4
Women’s Doubles (QF):
Diya Chitale/Swastika Ghosh (Mah) bt Krittwika Sinha Roy/Frenaz Chipia (Guj) 11-5, 5-11, 10-12, 7-11; Ayhika Mukherjee/Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) bt N. Deepika/V.Kowshika (TN) 11-4, 12-10, 11-7; Shruti Amrute/Reethrishya Tennison (Mah) bt S. Yashini/C.R Harshavardhini (TN) 11-3, 11-7, 8-11, 11-6; Yashaswini Ghorpade/Khushi V.(Kar) bt Takeme Sarkar/Prapti Sen (WB) 13-11, 14-12, 11-5
