Sharath, Madhurika in semis
Top seeds Achant Sharath Kamal and Madhurika Patkar sounded a grim warning as they asserted their supremacy to enter the men’s and women’s singles semi-finals of the LPS Bossard 47th all-India inter-institutional championships at the Table Tennis Foundation hall in the capital on Sunday.
Takeme Sarkar’s enterprising strokeplay led to the downfall of reigning champion and second seed Sutirtha Mukherjee to begin a procession. Pooja Sahasrabuddhe followed, sending Manika Batra — seeded sixth — home in a comeback struggle.
Sharath, who disposed of Amalraj in the Round of 16, was in complete control against Soumyajit Ghosh in the quarterfinal as was evident from the scores, especially in the fourth game which he won without conceding a point. Except for a few mistakes in the third, Sharath had Ghosh on a tight leash and completed a 4-1 win.
“Full credit to Sharath. When he plays the way he did today, hitting hard, the least I could do was to go for cover. I tried my best, but he was too good,” said Ghosh.
Amalraj, who became his victim in the pre-quarters, agreed. But Sharath was modest, saying everything clicked for him. “I went all out and hard. Sometimes it pays off, sometime it doesn’t,” said the national champion.
The second, third and fourth seeds — Sathiyan, Arjun Ghosh and Harmeet Desai, respectively — too advanced though Arjun struggled against floater Sougata Sarkar of LIC. The latter managed to take the second and third games to lead 2-1 at one point before Arjun came through for a 4-2 win.
Harmeet and Sathiyan won against left-handers Sanil Shetty and Abhishek Yadav 4-0, respectively.
For Takeme, it was a first semifinal entry in a tournament of this magnitude. Stroking well on both flanks, the Northeast Frontier Railways player was in a punishing mood. Suthirtha made far too many errors, and though she did come back in the fifth game, Takeme sealed the match.
Pooja accounted for sixth seed Batra in a thrilling comeback quarter-final, while eighth seed Archana put up a brave fight against Madhurika and even managed to take two games off her after being down 0-3. But that was all she could do under pressure. For another Siliguri girl Ankita Das, it was a profitable day as she beat Poulami Ghatak 4-1 to earn a match-up with Madhurika.
Meanwhile, the mixed doubles title went to PSPB pair of Sail Shetty and Reethi Rishya, who beat RBI’s Raj Mondal and Akula Sreeja 3-1.