Chandigarh: Notwithstanding some keen contests brewing in singles events, the main draw events separated real contenders from also-rans as the pre-quarterfinal results this afternoon proved in the Stag 23rd Veteran National Table Tennis Championships at the Panjab University Gymnasium Hall here.
But there were quite a few tough battles for supremacy, except in a few categories and that highlighted the importance of advancing to the next stage before taking a shot at the title for many. To begin win in men’s 40+ category, T. Nitin of Maharshtra had to play out of his skin to beat UP’s Parag Aggarwal 11-8, 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-4 and West Bengal’s A Bhattacharjee overcoming V. Bhupender of Himachal 4-11, 11-9, 11-6, 21-23, 11-8. The fight between the two not only took them to the decider but what made it most interesting was the fourth game which Bhupender won 23-21 after several deuces and losing more than half a dozen game points. In fact, both had squandered chances but in the end the West Bengal veteran triumphed.
The 50+ too witnessed a fine duel between Punjab’s Ajay Sharma and Kapil Kumar of Maharshtra which the former won after the latter had taken the issue to the decider. In another match V. Kalyanaraman from Tamil Nadu downed Maharashtra’sDivakar Shelarka 11-9, 9-11, 14-12, 10-12, 11-8 but his third game win proved to be crucial. In 60+, Jit Mavani of Maharahtra overcame M.S. Subramanyam of Tamil Nadu 7-11, 11-6, 12-10, 8-11, 13-11, Santhsh Kaushi of Madhya Pradesh resisted M.A. Bai of Maharashtra to win 9-11, 11-8, 11-13, 13-11, 11-8 in 65+ and in 75+ B.G Krishnamurthy of Karantaka had to ward off a real threat from Pramod Mule of Maharashtra when he won 11-8, 8-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-8 and Ashok Koppikar of Maharashtra defeating A.N. Bhargava of Uttar Pradesh 3-2 after leading 2-0.
In women’s singles, the winners had it easy against their opponents in 40+ category while two matches in 50+ got extended to 3-1 with Mandira Sur of West Bengal beating Neeta Kulkarni of Maharashtra and V. Sugitha of Tamil Nadu overcoming Madhu Parikh of Gujarat 11-5, 11-5, 9-11, 11-8.
The quarterfinals in categories will be played later tonight while all semifinals and finals are slated for the concluding day tomorrow, followed by prize distribution.
The Results:
Men’s Singles (All pre-quarterfinals):
40 Plus: Vikas Mahajan (Pun) bt Vijay Sharma (Deli) 3-0, A. Bhattacharjee (WB) bt V. Bhupender (HP) 3-2, Mukul Boro (RBI) bt Noel Norohna (Goa) 3-0, Nitin T. (Mhr) bt Parag Aggarwal (UP) 3-2, Harsh Chopra (Deli) bt Sait Biswas (IA&AD) 3-1, Malay Thakkar (Guj) bt Rahul Chopra (Dli_ 3-1, Manish Rawat (Mhr) bt Alok T. (UP) 3-0, Upender Mulley (Mhr) bt Sikandar Jam (Guj) 3-0.
50 Plus: Sunil Babras (Mhr) bt Avinash Joshi (Mhr) 3-0, AR Gangrade (mhr) bt Vipin Pandit (MP) 3-0, Ajay Sharma (Pun) bt Kapil Kumar (Mhr) 3-2, Sameer Sarkar (CG) bt Sanjay V (Dli) 3-1, V. Kalyanaraman (TN) bt Divakar Shelarka (Mhr) 3-2, Pankaj Sharma (Pun) bt Sushil T (Dli) 3-0, Vivek Alujani (Mhr) bt Rajesh udam (Mhr) 3-0, Vivek Arora bt Prakash Punjabi (Mhr) 3-0.
60 Plus: Ashok (WB) bt Suhas Kulkarni (Mhr) 3-1, P.G.Kelkar (Mhr) bt N.K. Chouhan (MP) 3-0, Gopal Chakrabarty (WB) bt Suhas D (Mhr) 3-1, Ramakrishna (TEG) bt P.R. Prem Kumar (TN) 3-0, Jitu Mavani (Mhr) bt M.S. Subramaniyam (TN) 3-2, Arun Dhotre (mhr) bt K.P.Rathod (Guj) 3-0, K.G. Purohit (Guj) bt Ulhas K (Mhr) 3-1, Yogesh Desai (Mhr) bt Ganesh Bose (WB) 3-0.
65 Plus: Pinakin Sampat (Mhr) bt S.P. Jagnath (TLG) 3-1, Satish Kulkarni (Mhr) bt Dilip K. (Mhr) 3-1, A. Warunkar (mhr) bt R.L. Gaur (MP 3-0, Sadhan Dutta (WB) bt Balbir Singh (Chd) 3-1, Pitanjali Kumar (Chd) bt Shibath Biswas (WB) 3-0, Santhosh Kaushik (MP) bt M.A. Baig (Mhr) 3-2, Raj Sharma (Dli) bt R. Irudayaraj (TN) 3-1, Dilip Shah (Mhr) bt T. Nagaraj (TLG) 3-0.
70 Plus: I.G. Purohit (MP) bt S. Bhoopalan (TN) 3-0, Anjan Dhar (WB) bt Sainath Iyer (TTFI) 3-1, P.C. Baby (Dli) bt Candrakant Jambhale (Goa) 3-0, A.S. Sheikh (mhr) bt Krishnaswamy (Kar) 3-1, R.P.Malaviya (MP) bt K. Amarnath (TN) 3-0, B.K. Maini (Dli) bt Y. Birkumar (MNP) 3-0, A.A. Jaidi (Dli) bt Udhya Shankar (Kar) 3-0, Subodh Deshpande (mhr) bt Debo P. Chakrabarty (WB) 3-0.
75 Plus: B.G. Krishnamurthy (Kar) bt Pramod Muley (mhr) 3-2, K.V. Krishnamurthy (Kar) bt R.P. Chatterjee (WB) 3-0, Ashok Koppikar (Mhr) bt A.N. Bhargava (UP) 3-2, V. Rajagopal (TN) w/o Prakash Amrit (Dli) 3-0, I.M. Mehta (Guj) bt Rajinder Khanna (Chd) 3-0, N.S. Singh (Kar) bt Ashok Pyne (WB) 3-0, Anand Prakash (Dli) bt Eknath Padhye (mhr) 3-0, K. Satyanarayan (Kar) bt T. Sriram (TN) 3-0, Pramod Muley (mhr0 bt Ramnathan (TN) 3-2.
Women’s Singles (Pre-quarterfinals):
40 Plus: Sonal Joshi (Guj) bt Indrani Chatterjee (WB) 3-0, Minu Basak (WB) bt Trupti Machwe (Mhr) 3-0, Shahin Khan (RBI) bt Madhvi Rajguru (Guj) 3-1, Kuntali Bhattacharjee (WB) bt Divya Padya (Guj) 3-0, Ruby Kaur (MP) bt Neha Patel (Guj) 3-0, N.R. Aparna (AP) bt Shila Paul (NB) 3-0, Prasanna Pathak (Guj) bt S. Nybha Ghate (RBI) 3-0, Moon Moon M. (Mhr) bt Kavita (Chd) 3-0.
50 Plus: Manisha Kataria (MP) bt Pratibha Sawant (Mhr) 3-0, Mandira Sur (WB) bt Neeta Kulkarni (Mhr) 3-1, Mantu Murmu (WB) bt Seema Gondnale (Mhr) 3-0, Karabi Maitey (WB) bt Visha Shinde (Mhr) 3-0, Mangala Saraf (Mhr) bt S. Dong (SKM) 3-0, Tusharkana Dutta (WB) bt Anjana Bora (ONGC) 3-0, V. Sugitha (TN) bt Madu Parikh (Guj) 3-1, Suhasini Bakre (Mhr) bt Ujwale Marathe (Mhr) 3-0.
65 Plus: Semifinals: Manisha Bodas (Mhr) bt Era Pant (CG) 3-0, Laila Bhagwan (Mhr) bt Satya Kumari. C (Kar) 3-0, S. Moitra (CG) w/o Swati Kadam (Mhr) 3-0, Sunanda Rao (Mhr) bt Sikha B (TN) 3-0.
