Ghosh ousts Harmeet in National TT
RAJKOT: Defending champion Harmeet Desai of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) went down 3-4 to West Bengals Arjun Ghosh in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals of the National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here on Saturday.
Harmeet lost a 3-1 cushion, his form and rhythm as Arjun Ghosh raised the level of his game a notch higher to win the match 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9 and march into the quarters.
He upped the ante in the fifth game, winning it by minimal points and gradually kept himself floating to take the issue to the decider.
In the decider, it seemed a touch- and-go affair as the two matched each other with great strokes, using the flanks well. A few blunders, especially when he netted the ball as Arjun was serving for the match and a service error just before that, cost Harmeet dear.
But Manav Thakkar and Devesh Karia fought well to keep the hosts' flag flying high when the former outlasted Airport Authority of India's (AAI) Sarthak Gandhi 4-2 and Karia rolled over PSPB's Sourav Saha 4-1 to advance to the quarter-finals. Manav played a controlled and yet aggressive game despite Sarthak giving him a good fight.
In other matches, top seed G. Sathiyan beat Soumyadeep Roy 4- 0, AAI's Vivek Bhargava downed Rohit Chakraborth of LIC 4- 1 and another AAI boy Ronit Bhanja outplayed PSPB's Birdie Boro to win 4-2. For Santil Shetty, it was a cakewalk as he beat Nitin Thuruvengadam of Canara Bank 4-1 and Jubin Kumar repeated the score against Telangana's Aman Balgu.
Earlier, Varuni Jaiswal of Telangana pulled off another giant killing feat when she humbled former national champion K. Shamini with a 4-3 verdict . IANS