Perhaps fueled by the buzz from speakers from adjoining schools to the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium in Surat, Dark Horse exceeded expectations and pushed the favorites to the limit in the 86th Senior National Table Tennis Championships.
Bangladesh youngster Nandini Saha deposed Railways’ defending champion and eighth seed Poymantee Baisya in a thrilling five-match series on Friday. Meanwhile, Gujarat’s Pratha Pawar and Assam’s Priyanuj Bhattacharyya suffered painful defeats over women’s top seed Sreeja Akula and men’s second seed Ankur Bhattacharjee, in the singles Main Draw found of 64.
Poymantee was surprised to win the national title in Panchkula in the previous edition but had a lackluster season. It ended in the worst possible way, with Nandini covering her up in a tense and grueling fight.
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Sreeja (making his debut in this edition) took some time to adjust to the conditions and found himself trailing 2-1. However, the two-time national champions spun resources on an effective forehand at crucial moments to earn a third-round berth.
Earlier in the evening, Priyanuj (Olympian SS Raman and former India No. 1 Bhuvaneswari), one of the standout performers in the championship earlier in the week, stretched rising star Ankur Bhattacharjee to the limit. Undoubtedly the day’s match, the duo showed higher pace in a long and fast rally ahead of Bhattacharjee, who eventually converted his third match point into victory.
Elsewhere in the first round, Tamil Nadu’s 13th seed PB Abhinandh was shocked to defeat Arjav Gupta (PSPB Academy) in four games.
Important results:
Singles second round:
man: (1)G. Sathiyan (PSPB) Bt Chinmaya Somaiya (MAH) 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9; (16) Jeet Chandra (RSPB) Bt Mohammed Ali (Phone) 11-2, 9-11, 11- 7, 9-11, 11-5; (9)A. Amalraj (PSPB) BT Roonak Mazumder (Ben) 8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5; S. Karthikeyan (TN) BT Shankhadip Das (Ben) 7-11, 13-11, 11-8, 6-11, 12-10; H. Jeho (Miz) Bt Sarthak Gandhi (Har) 8-11, 11-4, 4-11, 11-6, 11-9; Bodhisatwa Chaudhary (Ben) Bt Rohith Shankar (Kar) 11-6, 7-11, 10-12, 11-6 , 11-8; Siddhesh Pande (MAH) Bt S. Preyesh Raj (TN) 12-14, 11-2, 11-3, 11-7; (2) Ankur Bhattacharjee (PSPB) BT Priyanuj Bhattacharyya (ASM) 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 6-11; 11-7.
female: (1) Sreeja Akula (RBI) Bt Pratha Pawar (Guj) 11-6, 12-14, 7-11, 12-10, 12-10; Nandini Saha (Ben) Bt (8) Poymantee Baisya (RSPB) 6- 11, 11-8, 3-11, 12-10, 11-6; (5) Taneesha Kotecha (MAH) BT Sagarika Mukherjee (RSPB) 11-4, 10-12, 13-11, 5-11, 11-8; (2) Swastika Ghosh (AAI) Bt Riya Jayswal (Guj) 11-5, 11-9, 12-10 ; Takeme Sarkar (RSPB) BT Priyadarshini Das (RBI) 8-11, 1-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-8; (4) Yashaswini Ghorpade (PSPB) Bt Srijanee Dey (Ben) 11-9, 11-8, 11-9.
