By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, April 23: A number of intense singles and doubles action witnessed some of the country’s top paddlers qualify to the business end of the main draw during the 83rd Senior National Table Tennis Championship being held at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Indoor Training Centre, here on Saturday.
On Sunday, the mixed doubles final will be played at 6pm, while Monday will see the women’s singles and doubles along with the men’s singles and doubles finals wrapping up the mega event.
Arjuna awardee and Commonwealth and Asian Games medallist Anthony Amalraj made his competitive return to Shillong.
He was part of an Indian team that dominated the table tennis events in the South Asian Games 2016.
Amalraj made it through to the men’s singles third round, to be held on Sunday morning, after beating Surya Teja Telidevara 4-1. G Sathiyan (4-2) and Sharath Kamal (4-0) also progressed to the Round of 32.
There were a couple of surprises, including Soham Bhattacharya upsetting ninth-seed Arjun Ghosh 4-3.
Arjun, placed comfortably at 3-1, was cruising before a rejuvenated Soham attacked and mounted pressure on Arjun, the Kerala paddler taking the next three games to emerge the winner.
In the women’s singles, Manika Batra had her task cut out against unseeded Riti Shankar of Haryana in the women’s singles. Trailing 0-2, Manika was on the brink in the third at 9-9.
But Batra’s experience was evident as the Haryana woman failed to press home the advantage. Seizing the moment, she drew first blood and levelled the score in the next.
After that, the round of 64 matches went only one way, and Manika upped the ante to surge into the lead and complete the task in style.
In another match involving two unseeded players – Trisha Gogoi and Deepika Neelakandan – the Assam girl emerged victorious, taking the last two games.
Deepika levelled at 2-2 and looked to stage a comeback but wilted under pressure.
However, young Jennifer Varghese from Maharashtra fought back nicely to put Bengal’s Moumita Dutta under enormous pressure.
But the senior pro came good in the decider, wrapping up the match 4-3.