National C’ship: UP, Delhi emerge as surprise medallists

Uttar Pradesh defeats Haryana and Delhi beats Tamil Nadu in the quarterfinals.

Abhishek Yadav is all smiles after leading UP to its first men's team medal in 19 years. Photo: Amol Karhadkar

Uttar Pradesh emerged as the giant-killer as Abhishek Yadav’s spirited bunch staged successive upsets to assure themselves of a team championship medal in the 80th 11Sports Inter-State & National Table Tennis Championship at the JN Indoor Stadium on Saturday.

Read | Sharath, Sathiyan retain career-high positions in ITT rankings

On the second day of the event, which stretched late into the night, UP stunned last year’s silver medallist Haryana in the quarterfinal. While southpaw Yadav continued his unbeaten streak to win both his singles, Abhinav Belwal surprised Sourav Saha in the deciding rubber to help UP win its first medal in 19 years. Earlier in the evening, UP had ousted medal contender West Bengal 3-2 in the round of 16.

Delhi ends medal drought

Delhi men, too, ended their 24-year medal drought as they outwitted Sushmit Sriram’s Tamil Nadu 3-2 in an entertaining quarterfinal. While Sriram was too good for promising youngster Payas Jain and Parth Virmani, Delhi won the remaining three matches of the tie to set up a semifinal clash against giant Petroleum Sports Promotion Board.

A bronze medal in the 1994-95 Nationals in Pondicherry was the last medal for Delhi’s men.

• Women
• PSPB bt Telangana 3-0 (Manika Batra bt Sreeja Akula 2-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5; Madhurika Patkar bt Nikhat Banu 11-5, 1-7, 9-11, 11-6; Mouma Das bt Monica Manohar 11-8, 13-11, 11-9).
• Maharashtra B bt Maharashtra A 3-2 (Diya Chitale lost to Pooja Sahasrabudhe 5-11, 11-4, 3-11, 9-11; Manushree Patil lost to Divya Deshpande 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 1-11, 2-11; Shweta Parte bt Senhora D’Souza 11-7, 11-7, 4-11, 11-6, Diya Chitale bt Divya Deshpande 10-12, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-5; Manushree Patil bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe 11-8, 11-3, 6-11, 11-8).
• West Bengal bt Tamil Nadu 3-2 (Ayhika Mukherjee lost to Reeth Rishya 7-11, 7-11, 9-11; Krittwika Sinha Roy lost Amrutha Pushpak 14-16, 6-11, 2-11; Mousumi Paul bt Vidya Narasimhan 11-6, 11-9, 11-9; Krittwika Sinha Roy bt Reeth Rishya 11-7, 11-8, 12-10; Ayhika Mukherjee bt Amrutha Pushpak 9-11, 12-10, 8-11, 13-11, 11-9).
• AAI bt Gujarat 3-2 (Mallika Bhandarkar bt Fatema Kadri 11-5, 12-10, 11-5; Surbhi Patwari lost to Chipia Frenaz 11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 5-11, 9-11; Selenadeepthi Selvakumar lost to Kausha Bhairapure 11-5, 10-12, 11-5, 7-11, 8-11; Mallika Bhandarkar bt Frenaz Chipia 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9; Surbhi Patwari bt Fatema Kadri 11-4, 11-9, 11-9).

• Men
• PSPB bt Maharashtra A 3-0 (A. Sharath Kamal bt Siddhesh Pande 11-9, 11-5, 11-7; G. Sathiyan bt Sanil Shetty 11-7, 11-8, 11-9; A. Amalraj bt Sanish Ambekar 11-8, 11-4, 11-6).
• Delhi bt Tamil Nadu 3-2 (Payas Jain lost to Sushmit Sriram 6-11, 7-11, 11-13; Parth Virmani bt Nitin T. 3-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7; Utkarsh Gupta bt Suresh Nikhil 11-7, 12-10, 11-7; Parth Virmani lost to Sushmit Sriram 4-11, 9-11, 10-12; Payas Jain bt Nitin T. 11-9, 11-4, 11-9).
• Gujarat bt RSPB 3-1 (Manush Shah bt Anirban Ghosh 9-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8, 11-5; Harmeet Desai bt Anirban Nandi 11-9, 11-13, 11-5, 8-11, 11-7; Jignesh Jaiswal lost to Ravinda Kotiyan 11-8, 3-11, 11-6, 6-11, 8-11; Harmeet Desai bt Anirban Ghosh 11-6, 9-11, 11-3, 11-3).
• Uttar Pradesh bt Haryana 3-2 (Abhinav Belwal bt Jubin Kumar 5-11, 13-11, 6-11, 4-11; Abhishek Yadav bt Sourav Saha 11-7, 12-10, 11-8; Sarthak Seth lost to Jeet Chandra 10-12, 11-4, 11-13, 3-11; Abhishek Yadav bt Jubin Kumar 11-6, 8-11, 11-7 11-7; Abhinav Belwal bt Sourav Saha 11-3, 11-9, 11-9).