Swastika’s maiden entry into semis

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 20

Unseeded Swastika Ghosh toppled seventh seed Krittwika Sinha Roy (4-0) to enter her maiden semi-finals of the UTT National Ranking North Zone Table Tennis Championship at Tau Devi Lal Multipurpose Indoor Stadium here today.

On a day that saw several seeds tumbling out, including the top two seeds, Swastika’s remarkable rise in recent times has caught the imagination of fellow players. The 18-year-old, who won the gold in WTT Youth Contender in Tunis last month, blanked out Krittwika with her superior display. The Airports Authority of India girl, who was stretched the full distance in the earlier round by Karnataka’s Kushi Viswanath, sailed through without breaking a sweat.

Fifth, sixth and eighth seeds Takeme Sarkar, Anusha Kutumbale and Prapti Sen had it easy against their opponents to join Swastika in the semi-finals. Earlier, top seeded Sreeja Akula bowed out losing to Surbhi Patwari of the AAI (1-4) to enter the quarterfinals. Fourth seeded Reeth Rishya went down to unseeded Diya Chitale (4-2). Second and third seeds Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee made their exits in the Round of 32.

Sharath sails into semis

Top seeded Sharath Kamal, second seeded Manav Thakkar, third seed Soumyajit Ghosh, and fifth seed Harmeet Desai moved into the men’s semis.

Earlier, Kamal dropped a couple of games before pulling the plug on the 16th seed Jeet Chandra. The PSPB veteran won (3-1, 9-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-2 and 11-7) for a quarterfinal showdown with Sudhanshu Grover, who is seeded nine. Seventh seed Ronit Bhanja’s exit was a surprise as he went down to qualifier Sarthak Seth, a TTFI wildcard, (11-8, 10-12, 11-8, 12-10, 8-11 and 12-10) in a grim pre-quarterfinal battle. Star attraction Manav Thakkar ousted Sarthak Seth (11-7, 11-9, 11-5 and 11-7).