Lucknow: Olympian Neha Aggarwal struggled against Tamil Nadu’s N. Vidya but finally held her nerves to beat Vidya 4-2 (11-6, 11-7, 11-6, 1-11, 10-12, 11-7 in the 73rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships here on the opening day of the singles events at the at the SAI sub-centre hall.
The PSPB girl was comfortably coasting home with a 3-0 lead, but was completely outplayed in the next as Vidya allowed just a solitary point to Neha. Egged on by teammates and the crowd Vidya brought her best and won the next at 12-10. This was the indication for Neha to pull her socks and she did well to wrap it up 11-7 in the sixth game, not allowing any elbow room for Vidya to sneak in.
In another tug-of-war like situation, the experience of Delhi’s Esha Monga stood her in good stead when she took on Airports Authority of India’s Karnam Spoorthy, a decently ranked player. Esha’s counter helped her stay in the game as she won 4-3 (11-13, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 10-11, 11-8) after losing the first game which gave some indication of things to come.
Spoorthy, still a junior, acquitted herself well in spite of letting her senior off the hook—Esha took the next three games—before regrouping herself to take the fifth and sixth games. But in the decider she made some crucial unforced errors that put paid to her ambitions as Esha shut her out quickly with a whipping forehand to heave a big sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, West Bengal’s Meenu Basak, who is seeded sixteenth, bowed out to Pooja Sharma from Madhya Pradesh 4-2 (11-5, 11-3, 4-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, while Kasturi Chakraborty of PSPB was stretched by Maharashtra B’s Senhora D’Souza 4-3 (11-7, 11-4, 2-11, 8-11, 13-11, 8-11, 11-8.
As for the biggies in men’s section, they sailed into the second round without trouble.
