Hyderabad, Jun 8 (PTI) Payas Jain of Delhi caused the biggest upset of the tournament when he defeated top-seed Harmeet Desai of PSPB in the men’s singles to enter the quarterfinals of the UTT National Ranking Championships here on Thursday.

When it looked like Payas had sewn up the match by leading 9-5 in the decider, Harmeet hit back and took three consecutive points.

But his service hit the net, and when Harmeet reserved for the point, Payas returned and finished well to go 10-8 up despite conceding one point to Harameet.

Payas’ effective backhand fetched him the crucial match point as he completed a 10-12 11-5 4-11 11-6 11-9 win.

Payas began on the wrong note, losing the first extended game to the senior pro but fighting back, he levelled the scores.

But there was no respite for the Delhi paddler, as Harmeet called the shots again and led 2-1 before Payas pulled one back to restore parity and took the match to the decider.

Unseeded Sourav Saha of Haryana upset sixth-seeded Jeet Chandra of the Airports Authority of India with an 11-9 11-8 11-9 verdict to advance to the quarterfinals.

The experienced PSPB paddler kept himself in the match with crisp shots and deft placings.

Jeet, an attacking player, was somewhat hampered when he could not get his forehand going.

Earlier in the day, second-seeded Sutirtha Mukherjee went down to unseeded Jennifer Varghese 15-13 11-8 12-10. What triggered the win for the Maharashtra player was the first game which she won on her fourth game point.

From there, the U-17 girl never looked back as she went from strength to strength to consolidate her position before winning the third game on her second match point to enter the quarterfinals, where she will take on Archana Kamath of PSPB, who accounted for Sagarika Mukherjee of the Railways 3-0.

Sagarika toppled seventh seed Anusha Kutumbale of Madhya Pradesh 9-11 12-10 6-11 11-9 11-9.

Source: PTI News