Quality matches were at a premium, but there was no dearth of exciting individual encounters on the second day of the team championship in the 85th National Table Tennis championship here.
Among the quarterfinalists of the previous edition at Jammu, host Haryana was the only team to fall short in both sections on Sunday.
Since only the top-8 states qualify for the next National Games,
Haryana will have to do well in the playoffs to take a spot vacated by institutions like Petroleum, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Reserve Bank of India and Railways.
AAI’s trio of F. R. S. Snehit, Jeet Chandra and Deepit Patil won their matches 3-1 to complete Haryana’s 3-0 rout in the pre-quarterfinals.
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The Haryana women, relying mainly on rising talent Suhana Saini to pull off her two singles matches, ran into a more determined Bengal and lost 3-1. A sketchy Prapti Sen won two singles, both in five games, as Bengal set up a quarterfinal clash against defending champion Reserve Bank of India.
In a match that was far closer than what the margin suggests, Prapti bounced back from a two-game deficit against Haryana’s Prithoki Chakraborty to win 10-12, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-4 and put Bengal ahead. Suhana expectedly tamed 14-year-old talent Syndrela Das 11-8, 12-10, 5-11, 11-4 to restore parity.
In the crucial third singles, Kaushini Nath produced a very effective performance despite her movements being hampered by a waist brace she wore to support her lower back and shut out a defensive Anjali Rohilla 11-3, 11-5, 11-5a.
That meant Suhana was needed to win on demand against Prapti and keep Haryana alive in the contest. The youngster rallied after losing two games and saved two tie-points in the fourth to force the decider. Prapti finally got her act right after 6-6 and raced away with the last five points for a 14-12, 12-10, 9-11, 14-16, 11-6 triumph.
The results (team championship pre-quarterfinals):
Men: Petroleum bt Orissa 3-0; Uttar Pradesh bt Karnataka 3-1; Airports Authority of India bt Haryana 3-0; Tamil Nadu bt Assam 3-0; Delhi bt Uttrakhand 3-0; Bengal bt Punjab 3-0; Maharashtra bt Gujarat 3-1; Telangana bt Himachal Pradesh 3-0.
Women: Reserve Bank of India bt Rajasthan 3-0; Bengal bt Haryana 3-1; Karnataka bt Telangana 3-0; Maharashtra bt Madhya Pradesh 3-0; Delhi bt Chandigarh 3-1; Railways bt Pondicherry 3-0; Gujarat bt Kerala 3-1; Tamil Nadu bt Andhra Pradesh 3-0.
Quarterfinal line-up:
Men: Petroleum-UP; AAI-Tamil Nadu; Bengal-Delhi; Telangana-Maharashtra.
Women: RBI-Bengal; Karnataka-Maharashtra; Railways-Delhi; Gujarat-Tamil Nadu.
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