Kolkata, Aug 26 (IBNS): All top 10 players in the men’s section justified their main draw seeding while some big names in the women’s section almost spoilt their reputation in the Ordnance Factory Board-conducted 42nd All-India Inter-Institutional Table Tennis Championships at the Khudiram Indoor Stadium here Saturday.
However, there were two upsets in the men’s section with No. 9 seed Devesh Karia of CRSB and No. 13 Sourav Chakraborty of PSPB biting the dust in the round of 32.
Both lost to unseeded Sivananda Seshadri of FCI and Souvik Basu Roy of RSPB.
But there was an interesting match where the upcoming Abhishek Yadav of PSPB defeated seasoned Anirban Nandi of RSPB. As for title-holder Anthony Amalraj, runner-up Achanta Sharath Kamal and other seeds it was a smooth sailing.
An excellent draw in women’s fare ensured that out of 16 matches only four ended with straight set results while four went the full distance.
However, No. 4 seed and Olympian Ankita Das and No. 8 Mamata Prabhu, with defeat staring at their faces, came back strongly to reverse the verdict to move into the pre-quarterfinals along with the rest.
Reigning national champion Poulomi Ghatak was stretched to six games by Indian Bank’s Sumana R Krishnan, PSPB’s Nandita Saha lost to RSPB’s Takeme Sarkar 2-4 and Kasturi Chakraborty, also of PSPB, was taken full distance by Audit’s Manisha Sharma which the former won 4-3.
It was a remarkable recovery by Ankita Das against AV Nivedita of the Airports Authority of India.
The latter poised for an upset with a 3-1 lead, but some silly mistakes in the fifth game gave the much-needed breathing space for the Siliguri girl.
Seizing the opportunity, Ankita inched close to one of her best comeback 9-11, 7-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7 wins in recent times.
Mamata, on the other hand, was down 0-3 against PSPB’s Narasimha Priya. But the Dena Bank paddler not only did a wonderful catch-up act with her attacking game but also ensured her progress with 8-11, 9-11, 12-14, 11-3, 11-2, 11-9, 11-9 triumph.
A visibly tiring Priya, who made several unforced errors, only helped Mamata in her cause.
Earlier, 42 men and 22 women made it to the main draw after their qualification rounds. They joined 12 others, including top 10 players, who got first round byes in the men’s section.
In the women’s section, the qualifiers joined the 10 top-ranked players who were directly seeded into the round of 32.