Manika overpowers Archana scare in TT

Tribune News Service

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Panchkula, February 17

Tournament f4avourite Manika Batra made her way to the semifinals of the UTT 82nd Senior National Table Tennis Championships by overpowering a tough challenge by Archana Kamath, at the Tau Devi Lal Indoor Stadium, Sector 3, today. Manika won 13-11, 11-9, 4-11, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-4 and 4-3.

The top seed had to labour to save her skin and she did it admirably after slipping from the 2-0 comfort zone.

Archana, meanwhile, fought back really well to level and go up 3-2. However, Manika showed her class in the sixth game, where she held four game points, and later in the decider, when she sailed into the semis.

Archana let opportunity slipped from her hands by committing too many errors in the sixth game, which allowed Manika to breathe easy.

Manika will now take on Sreeja Akula in the semis. Sreeja returned from two games down to defeat Prapti Sen 7-11, 11-13, 11-8, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6 and 11-7. She gained the upper hand after being 0-2 down and stamped her authority with two fine games to level score 2-2. Then she dropped one before regaining the upper hand to wrap it up. Takeme Sarkar of the Railways started off well before letting Pooja Sahasrabudhe a 2-1 advantage. But the Railways girl stroked her way to the semifinals when she took the next three games.

Takeme defeated Pooja Sahasrabudhe 11-8 9-11 1-11 11-9 11-8 11-9.

Reeth Rishya, who accounted for second-seed Sutirtha Mukheree in the pre-quarterfinals, had hiccups but soon came to herself to finish in style with a 4-2 verdict against Kaushani Nath. She logged a 11-2 6-11 9-11 11-7 11-7 11-9.

Pre-quarters’ tale

Earlier, in the pre quarterfinals, defending champion and second seed Sutirtha Mukherjee went down 3-4 to PSPB’s Reeth. But Archana was fortunate to escape defeat at the hands of TTFI wildcard entrant Anusha who failed to press home the advantage. Top seed Manika outplayed Sagarika Mukherjee of the Railways. Prapti Sen warded off early threats but the rest of the higher seeds played according to the script.