For the four Rio Olympics qualifiers — Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh, Mouma Das and Manika Batra — Thursday proved a day of contrasting fortunes at the All-India inter-institutional table tennis championship here.
Second seed Manika was sent packing in the second round by Mousumi Paul, who went on to reach the semifinals. Soumyajit withdrew without hitting a ball when his request to play with the DHS ball to be used in Rio was declined by his second-round rival Raj Mondal.
Sharath preferred to lose — to Sanil Shetty than to pull out.
Mouma, the only Rio-bound Olympian in the fray, downed Pooja Sahasrabudhe.
Sharath, who led 3-1 after four games and then 9-8 in the decider, said: “I did not try too hard to adjust to the seamless ball. I must say, every defeat hurts, especially one after leading 3-1. But when I am playing at 60 per cent and not sure about the bounce and speed of the ball, it was always going to be difficult.”
Earlier, top seed A. Amalraj survived Jignesh Jaiswal, escaping 7-11, 11-6, 11-13, 11-8, 10-12, 13-11, 11-5 in the second round.
The results: Men: Quarterfinals: A. Amalraj (Pet) bt Sourav Saha (Pet) 11-9, 11-5, 12-14, 11-8, 11-9; Manav Thakkar (Pet) bt Jubin Kumar (Pet) 11-4, 13-11, 11-13, 11-6, 2-11, 11-13, 11-8; Sanil Shetty (Pet) bt A. Sharath Kamal (Pet) 5-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-8, 11-8, 11-9; G. Sathiyan (Pet) bt Sougata Sarkar (LIC) 11-3, 9-11, 11-6 8-11, 14-11, 11-5. Women Quarterfinals: Madhurika Patkar (Pet) bt Krittwika Sinha Roy (Pet) 11-6, 6-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6; Mouma Das (Pet) bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe (Pet) 11-9, 13-15, 1-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4, 11-5; Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) bt Ankita Das (Pet) 4-11, 11-9, 15-17, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 11-4; Mousumi Paul (Pet) bt Swetha Kumaravel (IA&AD) 11-9, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9. Mixed doubles final: G. Sathiyan & Ankita Das (Pet) bt Ronit Bhanja & Ayhika Mukherjee (AAI) 10-12, 5-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-9.
