Sixth seed Harmeet Desai celebrated his selection for the prestigious Arjuna Award in style on the fourth day of the UTT-South Zone National-ranking table tennis championships at the Jimmy George indoor stadium here on Saturday.
The Gujarat paddler, representing Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, gave a good account of his attacking skills as he blanked veteran Subhajit Saha en route to the men’s singles semifinals.
Assertive play
Harmeet straight away had his rival on the defensive and hardly gave him any chance, before winning 11-8, 11-4, 12-10, 11-6. He will now take on the comeback man Soumyajit Ghosh (Haryana) who too produced a tremendous show against the No. 2 seed Sudhanshu Grover (PSPB), winning 12-10, 11-1, 11-4, 11-7.
On the other half, fourth-seeded Sanish Shetty overcame fifth-seeded Jeet Chandra 11-2, 9-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 11-8 to gain an entry to the round of last four wherein he will come across eighth seeded Sushmit Sriram (TN) who, in his quarterfinal encounter, was stretched to the hilt by Anirban Ghosh (Railways) before prevailing 11-8, 7-11,11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 5-11, 11-9.
Mayhem continues
The mayhem in the women’s draw continued for a second straight day as the top-seeded Sutirtha Mukherjee was shown the exit door by Senhora D’Souza in the quarters, the latter matching the fancied player’s aggression stroke for stroke before pulling it off at 11-7, 13-11, 10-12, 11-3, 9-11, 11-8.
No. 2 Madhrika Patkar was upset by young Diya Chitable in the pre-quarters 5-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-4, 11-7. However, Diya failed to make any impact in the quarters against Ayhika Mukherjee as the latter romped home at 11-6, 11-2, 11-5, 11-3.
Selenadeepthi Selvakumar (TN) got to a 3-0 lead against Mousumi Paul (PSPB). But Mousumi battled hard through the next three games to take the match into the final game. However, Selenadeepthi clinched the marathon at 11-7, 11-4, 14-12, 5-11, 8-11, 10-12, 11-8.
The other quarterfinal saw Shruti Amrute taking out Anusha Kumtable 12-10, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6, 11-9.
