Down 0-2 against Devesh Karia, Achanta Sharath Kamal clawed his way back to victory in the men’s singles quarterfinals of the 11Even Sports National Ranking (South Zone) table tennis championships at the Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT)-Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here on Saturday.
In the women’s section, Krittwika Sinha Roy too dropped two sets before defeating Manika Batra. Known to keep his cool, even with his back to the wall, Sharath launched his attack against the southpaw and went about reducing the margin, slowly but surely, to get ahead 3-2. In the sixth game, some loose shots almost cost him dear but Sharath held his nerve to prevail in the extended game. The bandana-wearing champ will meet Harmeet Desai, a 4-1 winner over Raj Mondal , in the round of four.
In men’s pre-quarters, top-seed G. Sathiyan faced his toughest challenge before staging his recovery to beat Siddesh Pande 4-2 (7-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6, 11-9).
It was a shock of sorts for the top-seeded paddler when Siddhesh outplayed him in the first two games. Even in the sixth, Sathiyan and Siddesh were 9-all till the former prevailed.
In other round of 16 matches, Manav Thakkar was extended 4-3 by Nitin Thiruvengadam, AAI’s Sushmit Sriram made a fine comeback in the decider to beat Subhajit Saha 4-3.
Haryana’s Jubin Kumar, a semifinalist at Rajkot, beat Sarthak Gandhi 4-2, Harmeet Desai advanced beating Aman Balgu 4-0, Raj Mondal beat Utkarsh Gupta 4-1, Devesh Karia won over Sougata Sarkar 4-0 and A. Sharatah Kamal decimated Nishaad Shah 4-0.
The results:
Men: Quarterfinals: G. Sathiyan bt Manav Thakkar 11-6, 11-3, 12-14, 11-5, 10-12, 11-9; Jubin Kumar bt Sushmit Sriram 11-13, 11-4, 11-7, 11-5, 6-11, 12-10; Harmeet Desai bt Raj Mondal 6-11, 11-6, 12-10,11-2, 14-12; Sharath Kamal bt Devesh Karia 9-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6, 13-11.
Women: Quarterfinals: Suthirtha Mukherjee bt Divya Deshpande 11-6, 15-13, 11-8, 4-11, 11-6; Mousumi Paul bt Mouma Das 11-7, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 13-11, 7-11, 11-8; Krittwika Sinha Roy bt Manika Batra 7-11, 12-10, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 12-10; Ankita Das bt Madhurika Patkar 12-10, 11-2, 11-6, 6-11, 11-8.
