Kolkata, Jan 7 (PTI) Maharashtra and Haryana, the top two seeds, inched closer to a potential showdown in the final of the U-19 Girls team championships after they beat their respective opponents in the Youth and Junior National Table Tennis Championships here on Sunday.
Maharashtra and Haryana beat Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, respectively, in the quarterfinals by an identical margin of 3-0.
Later Sunday night, Maharashtra will take on Delhi, who ousted hosts West Bengal 3-0, while Haryana will clash with Gujarat, who beat Rajasthan (TTFI 1) 3-1 in the semifinals.
The combination of Sayali Wani, Pritha Vartikar and Taneesha Kotecha proved too good for Tamil Nadu’s Shriya Anand, Kavyashree Baskar and Ananya Muralidharan.
In the case of Haryana, Suhana won her singles, including the reverse, after Saanvi Dargan lost the third rubber to Sahana Murthy 1-3, and Prithoki Chakraborti accounted for Trupti Purohit.
But it was a disappointing end for the hosts as the West Bengal girls went down without a fight. After Lakshita Narang gave Delhi the lead when she beat Saanvi Roy 8-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-5, Vanshika Mudgal won the crucial second rubber against Syndrela Das 3-2.
Vanshika countered well against the tricky Syndrela, who matched the Delhi girl stroke for stroke and kept her hopes alive until the fourth game when she tied 2-2. But in the decider, Syndrala had her chance after deuce, but Vanshika claimed the last two crucial points to put Delhi 2-0 up.
Riddhima Kapoor, with a nice cushion, ran through the third rubber so quickly to beat Nandini Saha 11-3, 11-8, 11-9, ensuring themselves at least a bronze medal.
After Rajasthan beat Telangana, their girls must have nursed the ambition of reaching the medal round. But Gujarat did not waste time and pushed their opponents to the ropes.
All the seeded teams, except for third-seeded Telangana, survived the knockout heat and moved into the quarterfinals.
However, third seed Telangana bowed out 1-3 in the pre-quarterfinals to Rajasthan (TTFI 1), giving the team from the south a rude shock even as the latter celebrated their calculated triumph to live in the moment.
After all, the girls knew they were clashing with Gujarat, a hard nut to crack, in the quarterfinals.
Samaira Sharma was the star performer for Rajasthan, who wrote both the opening and ending script.
The free-flowing Samaira first defeated Shreshta Kontham Reddy 11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 11-5. But Sunidhi Dewan failed to consolidate their position and lost the second rubber to Satya Aspathi 6-11, 7-11, 13-15.
However, Anushka Acharya made amends in the third rubber, winning it 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 11-5 against Nikhita Hardandhi. When the Telangana paddler equalled the score, it was anybody’s tie, but Anushka kept a cool head and beat her opponent comfortably in the decider.
Samaira, playing her reverse singles, dropped a game to Satya after beginning aggressively. But she steadied and outsmarted the Telangana girl to win 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6.
In the other matches, top-seed Maharashtra and second-seed Haryana sharpened their knives with clinical (3-0) performances against their rivals, Chandigarh and Andhra Pradesh. Tamil Nadu, Delhi, West Bengal and Karnataka.
But Gujarat, with the help of their import Oishiki Joardar, put it across Odisha 3-1 in their pre-quarterfinal tie.
Source: PTI News
