VIJAYWADA, Dec 1: Veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal and fellow international G Sathiyan entered the men’s singles quarter-final of the 4th UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships here on Friday.
Except for the top seed, Manav Thakkar, who blanked out Yashansh Malik of Delhi 3-0, second seed Sathiyan and sixth seeded Sharath had to endure tough fight from Raj Mondal of RBI and Akash Pal of the Railways respectively, before winning by identical 3-2 margin.
Sourav Saha of PSPB went the distance to beat third seed Snehit of AAI 3-2 in a tough pre-quarterfinal battle while Anthony Amalraj defeated fourth seeded Manush Shah 3-1.
Another India international Sanil Shetty went down to Ronit Bhanja of the Railways in another clash that went down to the wire. Ronit won 3-2.
Sharath was down 0-2 against Akash Pal before summoning his vast experience to win the last two extended games despite stiff resistance from the Railway’s paddler. The fast-paced match witnessed several long rallies, most of which went Sharath’s way.
Second-seed Sathiyan, caught on the wrong foot and trailing 0-2, raised his game to the extent that it put enormous pressure on Raj Mondal, who matched stroke for stroke. But Sathiyan stemmed the rot in the third game and continued similarly to subdue his RBI rival.
In contrast, the sixth and seventh women seeds, Moumita Datta and Swastika Ghosh, departed in the pre-quarterfinals and went 2-3 down to Yashini Sivashankar of Tamil Nadu and Anusha Kutumbale of the Railways, respectively.
But the two top seeds, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath, who won her first National Ranking title in Vadodara last month, sailed through. (PTI)
