Manush, Swastika emerge jr champions
In form Manush Shah of Gujarat needed all his experience to beat PSPB Academy’s Anukram Jain 4- 2 in the junior boys final, while Swastika Ghosh of Maharashtra justified her seeding by downing state- mate Manushree Patil 4- 2 to win the junior girls crown in the 11Even Sports North Zone table tennis championships in Panchkula on Monday.
The aggressive Shah was made to sweat against no. 2 seed Anukram Jain who, after trailing 0- 2, fought well to restore parity. But the bespectacled top seed, playing a fast- paced game, unsettled the Academy boy to romp home the winner.
Second seed Swastika had the measure of Manushree and led 21. But she was surprised by the fifth seed who changed flanks quite frequently to pull level in the fourth game. But Swastika hit her rhythm to stop Manushree and wrapped up the match.
Seed- slayer S. F. R. Snehit progressed to the quarter- finals after beating Delhi’s Parth Virmani 11- 6, 11- 6, 11- 9, 12- 10 and will take on Sanish Amebekar of Maharashtra next in the men’s senior section.
Sanish beat Haryana’s Sourav Saha 8- 11, 11- 6, 11- 8, 11- 9, 8- 11, 119 in a thriller while fourth seed Arjun Ghosh defeated Jeet Chandraa of West Bengal 4- 0 and Sudhanshu Grover of PSPB overcame a fighting Sushmit Sriram of Tamil Nadu.
From the bottom half of the draw Manav Thakkar, after leading 3- 1, faced a stiff fight from veteran Anirban Nandi of Railways before going through to a clash with Anirban Ghosh in the quarters.
Anirban won 4- 1 against Sourgata Sarkar of LIC while second seed Anthony Amalraj struggled past Subash Mani of Tamil Nadu 12- 10, 15- 17, 10- 12, 116, 11- 6, 11- 7.
In the women singles, K. Shamini entered the quarterfinals beating Mallika Bhandarkar 7- 11, 11- 7, 12- 14, 11- 7, 11- 5, 11- 3 while Krittwika Sinha Roy knocked out top- seed Suthirta Mukherjee 7- 11, 11- 8, 1210, 6- 11, 11- 8, 6- 11, 11- 9 in the first quarter of the draw.
Archana Kamath progressed with a 4- 1 victory over fifth seed Divya Deshpande even as Pooja Sahasrabuddhe downed Shruti Amrute of Maharashtra by a similar score. Third seed Madhurika Patkar beat qualifier Pooja Sharma 4- 2 to earn a quarterfinal against sixth seed Ayhika Mukherjee after the latter sent former national champion Mouma Das packing in the pre- quarters.