East Zone National TT: Kushani Nath and Senhora cause upsets

Divya, seeded four, lost to Airport Authority of India’s Kushani Nath, a qualifier, 11-2, 11-6, 13-11, 11-13, 11-9 in the round of 32.

Ankita Das in the East Zone National-ranking table tennis tournament in Guwahati on Wednesday.

Two seeded players, Divya Deshpande and Sagarika Mukherjee bit the dust in the East Zone National-ranking table tennis tournament at the R.G. Sports Complex’s Indoor Stadium, here, on Wednesday.

Divya, seeded four, lost to Airport Authority of India’s Kushani Nath, a qualifier, 11-2, 11-6, 13-11, 11-13, 11-9 in the round of 32, while Sagarika, seeded sixth, bowed out to Dena Bank’s Senhora D’Souza 10-12, 11-6, 11-4, 11-9, 11-8.

Divya had no answers to Kushani, who was attacking all fronts. Kushani toyed with the Inter-Institution champion belting out winners by racing to a 3-0 lead. Divya used all her resources, but came up short.

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Sagarika could not match the guile of Senhora for most parts of the match. In fact, consistency was her big problem and coupled with the unforced errors, Senhora was all over her rival.

Ankita Das and Reeth Rishya came back from two games to beat Sreeja Akula and Nikita Sarkar, respectively. Ankita, National women’s champion in 2015, but has not had big successes since then. Against Nikita, Ankita had to play at her attacking best to win. Reeth struggled to read Sreeja’s serve in the first two games, while making many unforced errors. After the loss of two games, she sorted out Sreeja's serve and held a firm grip over the proceedings.

In the men’s section, there were no upsets as all the sixteen seeded players reached the round of 32.

The results:

Women: (round of 32): Sutirtha Mukherjee (Har) bt Rupsa Bhattacharya (RSPB) 11-1, 11-3, 11-4, 11-3; Mallika Bhandarkar (AAI) bt Nikhat Banu (RBI) 10-12, 8-11, 14-12, 12-10, 12-10, 11-8; Shruti Amrute (RSPB) bt Poymantee Baisya (WB) 11-2, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4, 11-4; Ayhika Mukherjee (RBI) bt Shrushti Haleangadi (Mah-A) 11-7, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8; Krittwika Sinha Roy (WB) bt Aanch6al Malhotra (Del) 11-8, 12-10, 11-5, 11-9; Ankita Das (PSPB) bt Nikita Sarkar (NB) 7-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-1, 11-7, 11-9; Mousumi Paul (PSPB) bt Sumana Saha (RSPB) 13-11, 11-4, 11-8, 7-11, 11-2; Kaushani Nath (AAI) bt Divya Deshpande (PSPB) 11-2, 11-6, 13-11, 11-13, 11-9; Pooja Sahabrabuddhe (PSPB) bt Riti Shankar (Har) 11-8, 11-7, 11-7, 11-6; Prapti Sen( (WB) bt Selena Deepthi (AAI) 4-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-8, 11-8; Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) bt Oishwarya Deb (Har) 11-8, 11-8, 11-8, 11-2; Amrutha Pushpak (RBI) bt Shreya Ghosh (RSPB) 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 13-11; Surbhi Patwari (WB) bt Moumita Dutta (AAI) 11-6, 12-10, 6-11, 14-12, 11-2; Archana Kamath (PSPB) bt Priyardarshini Das (RBI) 11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-6.