Arjun Ghosh and Sreeja Akula stole the limelight as they stormed in to the men’s and women’s semifinals respectively on a day of upsets in the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) table tennis at the Abhay Prashal indoor sports complex here on Wednesday.
Ghosh, the 20-year-old from Soumyadeep Roy’s academy in Kolkata, started the day by running over second seed Sanil Shetty in the round of 16. He followed it up with a nail-biting victory over seventh seed Manav Thakkar in the evening session to set up a semifinal clash against another unheralded player in Raj Mondal.
Ghosh succeeded in negating southpaw Shetty’s service advantage with remarkable receiving skills. It forced multiple unforced errors from Shetty and resulted in a 4-0 cakewalk for the unseeded youngster. He followed it up with a consistent display of top-notch table tennis against young sensation Thakkar in what turned out to be the match of the day.
With long rallies flowing consistently, Thakkar had the opportunity to close out the match in the sixth game but Ghosh saved two match-points. Ghosh then changed his t-shirt and entered the arena sporting one with the Superman emblem. In no time he zoomed to a 10-6 lead in the decider.
Thakkar then staged a comeback with a four-point spree.
At 10-apiece both failed to encash a match-point before Ghosh finished it off with a forehand top-spin.
Sreeja, the teenager from Telangana, wreaked havoc in the women’s draw playing with a pimpled backhand rubber. She first got rid of Olympian Manika Batra, the fourth seed, in the pre-quarterfinals and then took down the fifth seed Mousumi Paul in the quarterfinals.
She will now face top seed Madhurika Patkar in the penultimate hurdle of the season-opening national ranking tournament.
The results:
Quarterfinals: Men: G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Sourav Saha (PSPB) 12-10, 8-11, 11-6, 11-5, 8-11, 6-1 conceded; Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Sougata Sarkar (LIC) 11-5, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-7; Raj Mondal (RBI) bt Subhajit Saha (PSPB) 11-8, 11-7, 11-6, 6-11, 11-9; Arjun Ghosh (WB) bt Manav Thakkar (PSPB) 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 4-11, 8-11, 14-12, 14-12.
Women: Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) bt Ayhika Mukherjee (TTFI) 3-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-2, 11-9; Sreeja Akula (TS) bt Mousumi Paul (PSPB) 11-9, 11-5, 13-11, 11-7; Takeme Sarkar (PSPB) bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe (PSPB) 11-8, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9; Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) bt Divya Deshpande (PSPB) 11-5, 18-16, 12-10, 7-11, 7-11, 11-8.
