The seeded stars, including toppers Manav Thakkar and Manika Batra, crumbled like cookies under pressure on the penultimate day of the AAI 48th all India inter-institutional table tennis championship at the Bharathiar University indoor hall here on Monday.
Sharath Kamal, the top-ranked Indian in the world, started it all by going down in straight games (9-11, 9-11, 11-13, 7-11) to a young Ronit Bhanja of AAI in the pre-quarterfinals. But G. Sathiyan hit back in a similar fashion to oust Ronit 13-11, 11-2, 11-5, 11-7 in the quarterfinals.
The fifth-seeded Sharath was obviously upset.
“I did not get my service right and was not receiving as well. I will have to revisit what happened today and at Panchkula.”
But Ronit was thrilled for having beaten the champion. “I attacked from the start and put everything on the table but he missed some very easy balls. But Sathiyan was unstoppable. He was too quick and never gave me an inch to attack,” he said.
“ I went for the kill from the first point. I was aggressive on both sides, and it paid off,” said Sathiyan.
Later, Manav was a mute spectator to AAI’s Sushmit Sriram’s attacking form.
The former, a PSPB paddler, tried to hang on but the latter pulled off a stunning 11-9, 11-13, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6 win.
On the women’s side, Archana Kamath and Divya Deshpande, the seventh and eighth seeds, managed to stay in the hunt.
The results (quarterfinals):Men: Sushmit Sriram (AAI) bt Manav Thakkar (PSPB) 11-9, 11-13, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6;
G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Ronit Bhanja (AAI) 13-11, 11-2, 11-5, 11-7; Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Arjun Ghosh (AAI) 13-11, 11-5, 6-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-6; Sudhanshu Grover (PSPB) bt A. Amalraj (PSPB) 11-4, 11-9, 11-2, 4-11, 8-11, 10-12, 11-8.
Women: Divya Deshpande (PSPB) bt Manika Batra (PSPB) 7-11, 11-6, 10-12, 11-9, 5-11, 14-12, 11-5; Archana Kamath (PSPB) bt Sagarika Mukherjee (RSPB) 11-3, 11-5, 11-2, 6-11, 13-11; Moumita Dutta (AAI) bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe (PSPB) 11-8, 7-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6; Prapti Sen (PSPB) bt 11-9, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9.
