Manika, Sutirtha sail through

Tribune News Service

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Panchkula, February 16

Top-seeded Manika Batra struggled before overcoming qualifier Kajol Ramjali of Andhra Pradesh in the first round of the UTT 82nd Senior National Table Tennis Championship at Tau Devi Lal in Sector 3 here.

Manika eventually won 13-11, 11-9, 11-5, 7-11 and 11-3 to move into the round of 32. The current Indian paddler was never in doubt, but Kajol kept herself in the game with some wonderful forehands that somewhat unsettled Manika. With her experience, she overcame her Andhra rival.

Former national champion Madhurika Patkar accounted for Yashaswini Ghorpade of Karnataka after dropping two games to win 7-11, 11-4, 11-2, 12-10, 9-11 and 11-7. The 14th seed was in trouble when she dropped the opening game before picking up herself. Madhurika led 3-1 against the Karnataka girl. But the latter won the fifth game, giving her a scare. Madhurika’s experience held her in good stead in the sixth which she won.

Second seed Sutirtha Mukherjee hardly dropped a sweat against Kushi Jain of Madhya Pradesh. The Haryana paddler and reigning champion won 11-5, 11-3, 11-8 and 11-7. Archana Kamath, ninth seeded, was at sea in her contest against Swastika Ghosh, a TTFI wildcard entrant. Archana beat her rival 13-15, 12-10, 11-9, 4-11, 13-11 and 11-5. Sixteen-year-old Diya Chitale disposed of Vidya Narasimhan of TNTTA 11-4, 11-6, 11-9 and 11-4.

Sreeja Akula defeated Assam’s Akanshya Bhuyan in straight games 11-3, 11-2, 11-2 and 15-13 and third seeded Ayhika Mukherjee dropped just a game against Punjab’s Aarushi Arora before wrapping it up 11-5, 11-7, 11-4, 6-11 and 11-4. Sixth seed Krittwika Sinha Roy followed the suit with 11-6, 11-6, 11-5 and 11-8 triumph over TR Shruthi of TTTA. Eleventh seed Takeme Sarkar defeated Bhavana Menon of Kerala 11-9, 12-10, 11-3 and 15-13. K Shamini was not fortunate and exited from the tournament after losing her first-round match to Varuni Jaiswal. The Telangana girl won 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10 and 11-6. Ankita Das, another former national champion, registered 8-11, 11-4, 11-3, 7-11, 11-6 and 11-7 win against Snehal Patil of Maharashtra. Selenadeepthi Selvakumar of TTTA beat Maria Rony of Karnataka 11-5, 11-8, 11-9 and 14-12, while 15th seed Reeth Rishya, after leading 3-1 and 10-8, had to fight really hard to outwit Munmun Kundu from Bengal (A) 11-9, 12-10, 15-13, 9-11, 11-3, 6-11 and 11-8.

Archana found herself caught on the wrong foot right from the start against Swastika. In the first, Archana deuced and then went up 11-10 holding a game point. But Swastika won the game 15-13. In the second, Archana struggled to land her returns but managed to restore parity. She seemed relieved after going 2-1 up only to drop the next game. But she gained confidence after winning the fifth set and it helped her wrap up the next.