Haryana boys, girls lose in pre-quarters in TT Nationals

Vadodara, January 7 

Haryana’s youth boys’ and girls’ teams fought hard but lost in the pre-quarterfinals of the 78th Junior and Youth National Championships here today.

The boys managed to take a rubber off Uttar Pradesh when Gourang Shakreja took the third singles against Arjun Kohli 12-10 11-7 11-8. But UP showed more determination and almost sealed their berth in the last eight stage when Abhina Belwal and Sarthak Sethi downed their opponents Paras Madan and Ayush Tayal in straight games. 

In his return singles game, Abhinav ensured that UP went through by beating Aush 11-7 11-7 11-8. 

In the girls' section, except for the matches between Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal and Haryana, all the other pre-quarterfinals went along expected lines.

AAI, led by Archana Girish Kamath, Ayhika Mukherjee and Chipia Frenaz, struggled to overcome Andhra Pradesh. The Haryana girls, unlike the boys, proved to be gutsier.

What clinched the issue in favour of second seeds West Bengal was the crucial third singles game, which Priyadarshini Das won against Shelly Khandelwal.

The AAI girls won but they wouldn't be satisfied with their performance, especially Archana who went down to Shailu Noorbasha in her singles.

Top seeds Rajasthan defeated Karnataka 3-0 to enter. They will now run into Delhi, who beat North Bengal by the same margin. 

In fact, all winners of the pre-quarterfinal matches were the favourites and they demolished their respective opponents.

Pankaj Vishwakarma and Shubham Ojah, on whose shoulders rest the defending champions Rajasthan’s fortunes, struggled in their first outing in the knockout stage. 

Pankaj was stretched by Rakshit Barigidad before he scripted an 11-7 5-11 7-11 11-3 11-5 win. Shubham faced resistance from Shreyas Kulkarni before winning 11-5 4-11 10-12 5-11.  Asif Khan showed guts to beat Rohan Jamadagni 11-5 11-8 5-11 11-7 to seal a quarterfinal berth. — IANS