Pondicherry: Madhurika Patkar, former national champion and one of the contenders for next year’s Commonwealth and Asian Games, flattered to deceive, bowing out in the round of 64 women’s singles of the UTT National Ranking Championships (South Zone) at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here today.
In what turned out as the best match in the women’s main draw, the PSPB paddler went 3-4 down to qualifier Vedhalakshmi Devi of Tamil Nadu. Sitting relatively pretty with a 2-1 lead, Madhurika failed in quick succession, losing the next two games to the Tamil Nadu paddler. However, she came out of the rut to lead before losing the initiative to the tiring legs.
Seizing the opportunity, Vedhalakshmi levelled yet again and completed the task in style in the decider. It was creditable that the Tamil Nadu paddler neither got overawed by the opponent nor the occasion as she kept a cool head to advance.
Few other first-round matches also went down to the wire. The one between Kaushani Nath of Railways and Vidya Narasimhan, representing Central Revenue, drew the attention of fellow players and spectators. Kaushani, a regular on the circuit with great potential, expectedly led 3-1. But a few blemishes, including poor services, let Vidya claw her way back in the fifth game.
Picking the thread from there, she went on to level the score when Kaushani made several unforced errors. Playing freely and mounting pressure on Kaushani, Vidya ran close on points before wrapping it up.
The script in the match between Harshavardhini Ravichandran of RBI and Chipia Frenaz of Gujarat also ran more or less parallel. The RBI girl lost her first game but came back strongly to lead 3-1. Nevertheless, her Gujarat opponent fought back well win the last three games to enter the round of 32.
In the men’s round of 64, fourth-seed Sudhanshu Grover, tenth-seed Sougata Sarkar, and 14th-seed Sushmit Sriram had to pull themselves out of the mire they got stuck to make their progress into the round of 32. However, other seeds had no such hiccups to sail through.
Subham Ambre of Maharashtra had Sudhanshu in a bind for the first two games before the fourth seed could recover to win 4-2. Veteran Sougata, on the other hand, was caught napping as Kerala’s Soham Bhattacharya made him sweat despite the former’s sizeable lead. But Sushmit Sriram, who is still recovering from his injured back, got stretched fully by qualifier Arnab Chandra from Bengal. Sushmit, with loads of experience, pulled it off, including winning two of the three extended games.
Important Results:
Women’s Singles: Round 64: Shruthi Ramkumar (TTTA) bt Lakshita Narang (Del) 8-11, 11-4, 14-12, 10-12, 12-10, 11-5; Vidya Narasimhan (CRSB) bt Kaushani Nath (RSPB) 7-11, 5-11, 11-9, 5-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-9; Vedhalakshmi Devi (TNTTA) bt Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) 9-11, 7-11, 11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8; Chipia Frenaz (Guj) bt Harshavardhini (RBI) 11-9, 5-11, 4-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6; Radhapriya Goel (AAI) bt Seraha Jacob (Ker) 11-7, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8, 11-0.
Men’s Singles: Round 64: Mandar Hardikar (Mah) bt Ali Mohammed ITelg) 10-12, 11-6, 11-13, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-7; Sougata Sarkar (LIC) bt Soham Bhattacharya (Ker) 7-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-8, 4-11, 11-5; Jubin Kumar (PSPB) bt Pankaj Vishwakarma (RSPB) 11-9, 10-12, 4-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-4; Sushmit Sriram (TTTA) bt Arnab Chandra (Ben) 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 12-10, 7-11, 12-10; Abhimanyu Mitra (IAID) bt Vidit Desai (Guj) 8-11, 11-6, 6-11, 4-11, 12-10, 11-3, 13-11; Sudhanshu Grover (Del) bt Shubham Ambre (Mah) 8-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5, 11-5; Kiranjoy Pushilal (RSPB) bt Sarthak Gandhi (Har) 8-11, 11-8, 10-12, 15-13, 6-11, 11-6, 11-3; Raj Mondal (RBI) bt Utkarsh Gupta (CRSB) 11-6, 11-13, 11-3, 8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7.
