Siliguri: Assam stunned Tamil Nadu with a 3-1 verdict to enter the quarterfinals of the Sub-Junior Boys team event in the 78th 11Even Sports Cadet and Sub-Junior National Table Tennis Championships at the SMC Indoor Stadium here on Friday.
In another shock defeat, last year’s bronze medallist Haryana were sent packing by Gujarat’s Cadet Girls in the pre-quarterfinals when the latter posted a hard-fought 3-2 victory. Gujarat girls had finished ninth in the last edition at Kolkata.
But for these two surprise results in these two sections, the other teams that entered the main draw quarterfinals had easy outings against their rivals.
Tamil Nadu, comprising Preyesh Raj, Vishwa Deenadayalan and Varun Ganesh—all match winners on their day—would not have anticipated such a bad thrashing despite them being all Cadet boys. The Assam boys must be given credit for the way they approached the match and took on the might of Tamil Nadu to make a bold statement at the nationals.
Vishwa was the lone player to post a win when he beat Arshad Zubayr in the first rubber but the shocking defeat by Preyesh Raj, who swept through all zonal titles this season, upset their applecart, thanks to Agniv Bhaskar’s who won both his singles. In between, the Assamese pair accounted for Vishwa and Varun Ganesh in the doubles to complete their misery.
Earlier, semifinalists Haryana went down fighting a spirited Gujarat in the Cadet Girls pre-quarterfinals. The duo of Milli Tanna and Rutva Kothari played brilliantly and kept the Suhana Saini factor out of equation. It paid dividends as after Milli posted a clean 3-0 win over Pirishita Tuteja, Rutva lost her singles to Suhana as expected. However, Assam were back in contention when they won the crucial doubles 3-2 with Milli and Rutva at the helm.. Though Milli lost her reverse singles to Suhana, Rutva ensured a 3-0 win over Pirishita to keep their date with destiny. A forlorn Suhana, who won both her singles, couldn’t help Haryana in the face of a fine fight back by Gujarat.
Assam again!
Later, Assam’s Sub-Junior Girls had another surprise in store when they beat Uttar Pradesh 3-1, thanks to Trisha Gogoi who shouldered the maximum burden for Assam. After Gargee beat Suhana Narjinary 3-1, Trisha defeated Radhapriya Goel by a similar verdict to put the northeast team 2-0 up. But the Assamese pair lost their doubles to Gargee and Trisha who won 3-1. Yet, Trisha helped her team with a 11-13, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8 win against Suhana to complete another fruitful outing in the knockout stage.
With the team finals slated for tomorrow, all quarterfinal matches will be completed tonight.
Results:
Sub-Junior Boys (PQF): Guajrat bt Kerala 3-0 (Chitrax Bhatt bt M. Pranav 11-7, 11-5, 11-5, Dhariya parmkar bt Mohammad Sahil 11-5, 12-10, 11-0, Chitrax/Dhairya bt Joseph/
Amir 11-7, 11-7, 11-7); Assam bt Tamil Nadu 3-1 (Arshad Zubayr lost to Vishwa Deenadayalan 10-12, 8-11, 11-7, 10-12, Agniv Bhaskar bt Preyesh 5-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9, Arshad/Agniv bt Vishwa/Varun Ganesh 11-9, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8, Agniv Bhaskar bt Vishwa Deenadayalan 11-9, 11-7, 12-14, 11-5); Maharashtra A bt UP 3-0 (Deepit Patil bt Divyansh Srivastava 11-9, 11-4, 11-7, Dev Shroof bt Vibhor Garg 15-13, 11-7, 11-8, Deepit/Dev bt Vibhor/Divyansh 11-5, 11-7, 11-4); Telangana bt Karnataka 3-1 (Varun Shankar bt Marcose Gigu 11-5, 11-6, 11-8, A. Advait lost to Aakash Jagadish 12-14, 11-9, 9-11, 5-11, Varun Shankar/Advait bt Sujan/Shaswath 14-12, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7, Varun Shankar bt Aakash Jagadish 11-6, 11-5, 10-12, 12-10); North Bengal bt Goa 3-0 (Jayabrata Bhattacharjee bt Jaeden Pereira 11-5, 11-6, 11-7, Mainak Das bt Shaswat Mapsekar 11-6, 11-2, 11-8, Jayabrata/Siddhant bt Jaeden/Shaswat 11-3, 11-4, 11-1); West Bengal bt Maharashtra B 3-0 ( Tamal Ballav bt Sahil Joshi 11-5, 11-6, 11-7, Abir Roy bt Manav Mehta 11-7, 11-5, 11-6, Abir/Tamal bt Manav/Shivam Das 4-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-9); Delhi bt Punjab 3-0 (Shreyans Goel bt Lakshay Arora 11-8, 11-7, 11-8, Payas Jain bt Ishan Kapoor 11-6, 11-5, 11-6, Shreyans/payas bt Vivek Bhalla/Lakshay 11-6, 11-5, 11-5); PSPBA bt Odisha 3-0 (A. Lrruata bt Suman Saheel 11-7, 11-3,11-6, Chinmaya Somaiya bt Mohit Behuray 11-9, 11-6, 11-13, 11-3, Alberto/Chinmaya bt Abinash Tripathy/Saseat B 11-4, 11-7 11-1).
Cadet Girls (PQF): Tamil Nadu bt Goa 3-0 (Kavyashree Baskar bt Najoda Sjeolj 11-2, 11-6, 11-6, Nehal Surya Narayanan bt Sneha Mesta 11-6, 11-4,11-1, Kavyashree/Nehal bt A. Alya/S. Riya 11-8, 11-1, 11-1); Maharashtra A bt Chandigarh 3-0 (Sampada Bhiwndkar bt Pelf 11-8, 11-9, 11-6, Pritha Vartikar bt Neha Singh 11-7, 11-4, 11-5, Priitha/Sampada bt Pelf/Harnoor Kaur 11-2, 11-5, 11-4); Uttar Pradesh bt Maharashtra B 3-0 (Reedhi Bhaskar bt Trisha Dalmia 11-4, 7-11, 8-1111-4, 11-7, Ambika Gutpa bt Paridhi Potnis 11-4, 11-7, 8-11, 11-9,Ambika/Riddhi bt Aadyashree/Sachi 11-7, 11-5, 11-4); West Bengal bt Rajasthan 3-0 (Prithoki Chakraborti bt Sunidhi Dewan 11-6, 11-5, 11-8, Sucheta Prosad bt Priyanshi Prajapati 11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, Prithoki/Oishiki bt Sunidhi/Priyanshi 11-7, 11-2, 11-9); Gujarat bt Haryana 3-2 (Milli Tanna bt Pirishita Tuteja 11-3, 12-10, 11-7, Rutva Kothari lost to Suhana Saini 3-11, 6-11, 8-11, Milli/Rutva bt Prishita/Suhana 11-6, 9-11, 14-12, 5-11, 11-9, Milli Tanna lost to Suhana Saini 10-12, 4-11, 8-11, Rutva Kothari bt Pirishita Tuteja 11-8, 11-7, 11-7); Delhi bt Andhra Pradesh 3-0 (S. Gayatri bt Shresta Budda 11-6, 11-4, 11-3, Lakshita Narang b Charvi Phalgun 11-7, 11-1, 11-8, Gayatri/Lakshita bt Nasini/Sowmya 11-4, 11-5, 11-5); North Bengal bt Assam 3-2 (Subhasree Guha lost to Harshita Das 5-11, 5-11, 11-8, 5-11, Sainia Bhowmick lost to Himashree Bora 12-10, 11-7, 8-11, 5-11, 6-11, Subhasree/Saina bt Harshita/Himashree 11-3, 11-9, 11-7, Saina Bhowmick bt Harshita Das 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, Siubhashree Guha bt Himashree Bora 11-8, 11-5, 11-5; Karnataka bt Odisha 3-0 (Saathwika SR bt Swetapadma Dalai 11-8, 11-6, 11-5, Karruna Gajendran bt Sushree Pattanayak 11-7, 11-6, 11-8, Saathwika/Ishani bt Sushree/Swetapadma 11-9, 11-7, 11-7).
