National Ranking TT: Chitale stuns second seed Patkar

Chitale bettered Madhurika's reflexes and left the former national champion speechless with the quality of her strokeplay.

The match saw some long counter-rallies, a rarity in Indian women's table tennis, with the young protégé of Sachin Shetty emerging supreme on most of the occasions. (Representational Image)

Maharashtra teenager Diya Chitale created a stir by ousting second seed Madhurika Patkar to enter the women's pre-quarterfinal of the 11Sports Central Zone national ranking table tennis tournament at Abhay Prashal on Friday evening.  

In what turned out to be the match of the day, Chitale bettered Madhurika's reflexes and left the former national champion speechless with the quality of her strokeplay. The match saw some long counter-rallies, a rarity in Indian women's table tennis, with the young protégé of Sachin Shetty emerging supreme on most of the occasions.

Patkar, thus, joined fourth seed Divya Deshpande to put a premature end to their campaign before leaving for Korea Open, later, in the week. Deshpande, the fourth seed, lost to Vidya Narasimhan in the second round. Narasimhan, however, succumbed to Tamil Nadu's Yashini Sivashankar in the next round.

Third seed Pooja Sahasrabudhe, who was stretched to six games by Maharashtra's Disha Hulawle in the second round earlier in the day, saved a match point against Tamil Nadu's Shanmathi Satyamoorthy to enter the round of 16.   

In the men's singles, former national champion Subhajit Saha was sent packing in the round of 64 by his West Bengal junior Kirar Pushilal. In a tense battle that stretched right down the wire, Pushilal made a remarkable comeback after trailing 3-1 to stun the seventh seed in the decider. 

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Important results:

Women's third round: Pooja Sahasrabudhe (PSPB) bt Shanmathi Satyamoorthy (TN) 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-8, 5-11, 13-11; Mousumi Paul (PSPB) bt Annanya Basak (Mah) 11-4, 11-7, 11-9, 11-7; Diya Chitale (Mah) bt Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 6-11, 12-10, 11-9; Ankita Das (PSPB) bt Seraha Jacob (TN) 11-7, 11-7, 14-12, 11-2.

Men's second round: Raj Mondal (RBI) bt Reagan Albuquerque (Mah) 10-12, 11-3, 12-10, 11-13, 11-3, 11-7; Siddhesh Pande (Mah) bt Yashansh Malik (Del) 11-7, 7-11, 13-11, 11-9, 11-8; Deepit Patil (Mah) bt Birdie Boro (Asm) 11-8, 7-11, 5-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-6, 11-6; Utkarsh Gupta (Del) bt Souvik Kar (RSPB) 11-6, 12-14, 8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10, 11-8; Sushmit Sriram (TN) bt Sanmay Paranjape (Del) 9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 13-15, 11-5, 4-11, 11-6; Kirar Pushilal (WB) bt Subhajit Saha (PSPB) 5-11, 15-13, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 12-10; Arjun Ghosh (WB) bt Arunachalam Shrikrishna (TN) 12-10, 11-7, 11-9, 10-12, 9-11, 12-10.