Fancied names like Sudhanshu Gover (Petroleum), Ayhika Mukherjee (AAI) and Mallika Bhandarkar (Air India) failed to make the main draw of the singles events on a day when most results followed an anticipated course in the AAI 44th inter-institutional table tennis championship on Wednesday.
Amalraj pulls outOn a day when the Commonwealth Games doubles silver medallist A. Amalraj pulled out due to indisposition, close matches were at a premium but some lesser-known players pulled off some exciting victories. The ouster of 10th seed Divya Deshpande after facing Amrutha Pushkar was the only surprise outcome.
Lakshminarayanan of LIC bounced back from 0-3 to post a highly satisfying 4-3 victory over RBI’s Vigney Reddy while AAI’s Nishad Shah scripted a similar rally against Petroleum Academy’s Lalhinhula.
Leading results:
Singles (first round): Men: Anandraj Rajan (AAI) bt Souvik Basu Roy (Rlys) 8-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6; Leimapokpam Singh (Rlys) bt Sameera Kumar (FCI) 11-7, 9-11, 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7; Prabhakaran E. (Rlys) bt Sabhay Virmani (AAI) 6-11, 11-8, 19-17, 4-11, 13-11, 11-8; Nishad Shah (AAI) bt Lalhinhula (Pet) 5-11, 5-11, 5-11; 11-8, 11-3, 11-3, 11-9; Lakshminarayanan (LIC) bt Vigney Reddy (RBI) 9-11, 13-15, 6-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-5, 11-7.
Women: Ankita Das (Pet) bt Nandita Saha (Pet) 11-2, 11-6, 6-11, 11-9, 11-7; Anindita Chakraborty (Rlys) bt Manisha Sharma (Audit) 11-6, 9-11, 11-2, 11-5, 7-11, 11-6; Pooja Saharabudhe (Pet) bt Anushree Hazra (Rlys) 11-3, 11-9, 14-12, 5-11, 6-11, 11-5; Mouma Das (Pet) bt Shreya Ghosh (Rlys) 11-6, 11-6, 15-13, 10-12, 11-5; Amrutha Pushpak (Rlys) bt Divya Deshpande (Pet) 11-7, 11-3, 3-11, 11-5, 13-11.
Mixed doubles (semifinals): Subhajit Saha & Nandita Saha (Pet) bt G. Vinod & Shreya Ghosh (Rlys) 11-7, 11-2, 11-3; Jubin Kumar & NehaAggarwal (Har/Pet) bt Sushmit Sriram & Nikhat Bhanu (AAI) 10-12, 11-8, 11-4, 11-7.
