Ankita Das, on Friday, stunned third-seed Romanian Bernadette Szocs 4-3 (11-6, 11-9, 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 13-11) to reach the round of 16 in the Volkswagen World junior table tennis championships here.
Ankita fought valiantly to level the score at 3-3 and then in the decider, outsmarted her Romanian rival who, at one point, was leading 7-2, to win 13-11.
Coach Bhawani Mukherjee gave full credit to Ankita, but said she should not have slowed down after taking the first two games to allow her opponent gain ascendancy.
“But Ankita never gave up even after trailing 2-7 in the decider and she really fought well,” he said.
The results : Girls (Second round): Ankita Das bt Bernadette Szocs 11-6, 11-9, 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 13-11.
First round : Ankita Das bt Nadeey Dawlatly 11-9, 11-6, 5-11, 12-10, 11-6.
Boys' doubles (Pre-quarterfinals) : Koki Niwa & Maharu Yoshimura bt Soumyajit Ghosh & Harmeet Desai 11-7, 6-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-8; Jullien Indeherberg & Emilien Vanrossomme bt G. Sathiyan & Sourav Saha 4-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-5.
Girls' doubles (Pre-quarterfinals) : Nina Mittleham & Petrissa Solja bt Manika Batra & Mallika Bhandarkar 11-4, 11-6, 11-3.
First round : Manika Batra & Mallika Bhandarkar bt Linda Bergstorm & Maria Engleson 11-7, 13-11, 11-9; Chinese Meng Chen & Yuting Gu bt Ankita & Reeth 11-6, 11-4, 11-5-11 4-11 5-11.