JOIN USLacking the much-needed match practice, former national champion Mouma Das was on the verge of ouster in the LIC All India National Ranking Table Tennis Championships (South Zone) at the District Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.
But the veteran, who never faced such situations in recent times, will be fighting it out on Thursday to prove her detractors wrong when she takes on Anubha Bajaj of Delhi in her last outing. On Wednesday, she went down to Airport Authority of India’s Chipia 10-12, 11-7, 8-11, 8-11.
On the other hand, another former national champion Manika Batra brushed aside her qualification grind to post two straight wins in Group 1 to gain her main draw place.
Unmindful of the sudden change in stature, Manika, who is currently world No 104, first defeated Assam’s Syeda Dania Taski in her opening match, beginning it as cautiously as possible.
Gradually gaining ascendancy over her Assamese opponent, she finished off the match in style in less than 20 minutes to win 11-6, 11-2, 11-1. In the second round, she downed Rajasthan’s Nikita Rautela 11-8, 11-6, 13-11.
But for Mouma, who accounted for Senhora D’Souza 11-4, 11-3, 11-9 in her first round group 17 tie rather easily, the loss to Chipia must have come as a rude shock.
From the hosts’ point of view, it was a bad beginning for Kushi Viswanath who lost her first round match in group 15 to Ashlesha Trehan of the Railways 9-11, 11-13, 11-6, 5-11. Shailu Noorbasha of Andhra Pradesh downed Samyukta Kumar 10-12, 11-6, 12-10, 11-7.
However, Spoorthi V, who defeated Namna Jaiswal of Gujarat 11-7, 11-9, 13-11, made amends for her teammates’ loss.
In men singles, Shreyas Kulkarni started on a wrong note against Nitin Thiruvengadam of Canara Bank in group 10. Nitin, a seasoned player, just toyed with his Karnataka opponent to win 11-5, 11-4, 11-5. But P V Charan defeated Aakash Kasar of Maharashtra 11-6, 11-8, 11-9 in his first outing to give Karnataka some hope.