Guwahati: Second-seeded Siddhesh Pande of Maharashtra bowed out in the first round of the main draw when Petroleum Sports Promotion Board’s Jeho Himnakulhpuingheta beat him 3-1 in the Junior Boys section while two other seeds, No. 7 Abhimanyu Mitra of West Bengal and No. 8 Ashwin Subramanian of Maharashtra joined the procession in the National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Deshbakhta Tarunram Phukan Indoor Stadium here on Monday.
In comparison, only two seeds—No. 6 Abinaya Ramesh of Tamil Nadu and No. 8 Shallu Noorbasha of Andhra Pradesh—fell by the wayside in the Junior Girls category while all the top seeds survived the day. However, it was a touch-and-go affair for No. 3 seed Moumita Datta of West Bengal and No. 4 seed Sreeja Akula of Telangana who had to endure their rivals’ onslaught before overcoming them.
Jeho, the boy from Mizoram who represents the academy at Ajmer, handled Siddesh Pande tactfully and easily beat him in the first round of the main draw. Jeho, who is an attacking player, found the rhythm going for him right from the word go and the Junior Boys title winner at Thane (West Zone) could not sustain the speedy forehands of the academy boy and wilted under pressure. But Jeho could not go any further as he went down in the pre-quarterfinals to Akash Chowdhury of West Bengal, who blanked him out 3-0.
But another West Bengal paddler, Abhimanyu Mitra, failed to go past the first round when Delhi’s Parth Virmani accounted for him with a 3-1 verdict, making the unseeded Parth’s passage into the quarterfinals. Earlier in the first round Maharashtra’s Ashiwin Subramanian could not make most of his seeding and went down to another PSPBA boy, John Zamliana, also from Mizoram. However, John bit the dust in the pre-quarters as UP’s Sarthak Seth beat him 3-2 in a tough contest. The UP boy, a better India player, was made to work hard for his points, thanks to the fighting abilities of John.
As for the other top seeds, they all moved into the quarters without any hiccup.
Coming to the Junior Girls, two matches stood out on the day with both Sreeja Akula and Moumita Datta struggling against their opponents. Tamil Nadu’s Selenadeepthi not only stretched Sreeja to the last game but even threatened rightfully after she levelled the score 2-2 when the Telangana girl was sitting pretty at 2-1. But Sreeja wound up the decider in double quick time, allowing just six points to her Tamil Nadu opponent.
Interestingly, No. 3 seed Moumita was down 0-2 against Anusha Kutambale of Madhya Pradesh, the latter winning second game after squandering three game points at 14-12. Probably, that’s where she lost her energy to press the accelerator and allowed the West Bengal girl to come back in the match. From there, it was Moumita all the way as she went on a rampage to outwit her rival and into the quarterfinals. All other seeds went through the routine to join Moumita in the quarters.
Ankita, Sathiyan bereaved
It was a real setback for the organizers, the officials and players at the East Zone championships when they learnt in the morning the passing away of Ashim Das, father of Ankita Das, and Gnasekaran, father of G. Sathiyan.
Both the players were set to arrive today to play in the main draw matches of the men’s and women’s singles, where they were directed entered because of their rankings.
In his condolence messages to both the players, TTFI secretary-general Dhanraj Choudahry said the losses were irreparable and his sympathies and prayers were with the two families. “I know it is difficult to fill the void, but I pray to god to give you strength to bear the loss in this hour of grief,” he said in a statement.
Results:
Junior Boys: PQF: Ronit Bhanja (WB) bt Akaash Nath (NB) 3-0 (12-10, 11-6, 11-4), Sarthak Seth (UP) bt John Zamliana (PSPBA) 3-1 (5-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7), Jeet Chandra (WB) bt Lalhunhlua (PSPB) 3-1 (11-8, 11-9, 5-11, 15-13), Anirban Ghosh (WB) 3-1 (11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 11-4), Parth Virmani (Del) bt Abhimanyu Mitra (WB) 3-1 (11-5, 14-12, 9-11, 11-6), Akash Chowdhury (WB) bt Jeho Himnakulhpuingheta (PSPBA) 3-0 (11-1, 11-9, 11-6), Ananth Devarajan (TN) bt Shreyas Kulkarni (KNT) 3-0 (11-9, 11-1, 11-3), Manav Thakkar (PSPBA) bt Manush Shah (Guj) 3-1 (11-4, 11-3, 2-11, 11-6).
Junior Girls: PQF: Harshavardhini Ravichandran (TN) bt Kaushani Nath (WB) 3-1 (11-6, 6-11, 11-4, 11-5), Ashlesha Trehan (Mah) bt Srishti Gupta (Del) 3-1 (11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6), Priyanka Pareek (Raj) bt Laasya Subramanyan (Telg) 3-1 (11-5, 6-1, 3-11, 11-4), Sreeja Akula (AAI) bt Selenadeepthi Selvakumar (TN) 3-2 (11-7, 8-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6), Kritika Malik (Del) bt Abinaya Ramesh (TN) 3-2 (12-10, 11-7, 7-11, 11-13, 11-6), Yashini Sivashankar (TN) bt Tanisi Kirtani (Goa) 3-1 (11-13, 11-2, 11-5, 11-4), Varuni Jaiswal (Telg) bt Tulika Roy (WB) 10-12, 11-6, 11-5, 11-1), Moumita Data (WB) bt Anusha Kutumbale (MP) 3-2 (9-11, 12-14, 11-6, 11-5, 11-4).
