Title contenders Pooja Sahasrabudhe, A. Amalraj and Jubin Kumar managed to avoid the ignominy of a second round exit in the season-opening 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) table tennis championship here on Tuesday.
While Pooja, the third seed in women’s singles, saved a match-point against Railways’ Anushka Dutta before winning the tough seven-game encounter, Amalraj, seeded third in men’s, was stretched by the promising youngster Abhimanyu Mitra of West Bengal in a nail-biting affair.
Fifth seed Jubin Kumar survived a scare from the unheralded Jeet Chandra of West Bengal to make it to the round of 32.
Anushka got off the blocks well against PSPB’s Pooja and took a 3-1 lead. The right-hander had the opportunity to close the match out and stage the first big upset of the tournament when she led 12-11 in the fifth.
However, an unforced error paved the way back for Pooja. After winning the crucial game, Pooja changed her game-plan and crushed her dejected opponent in the remaining two games.
Amalraj’s bout against promising left-hander Mitra was always going to be one of the feature ties of the second round. The match lived up to its expectations with Mitra creating uncanny angles to leave Amal searching for answers for a better part of the game.
However, after trailing 3-2, the fancied right-hander used his experience to leave Mitra short of staging an upset.
Important results: Second round: Men: Prashant Aher (MP) bt Vikram Aditya (Pun) 12-10, 12-14, 11-9, 11-6, 11-13, 11-8; Mohammed Ali (TS) bt R. Rajesh (LIC) 11-8, 11-8, 14-16, 8-11, 11-7, 9-11, 12-10; Ananth Devarajan (TN) bt Birdie Boro (PSPB) 11-6, 7-11, 5-11, 7-11, 17-15, 11-6, 11-9.
Jubin Kumar (PSPB) bt Jeet Chandra (WB) 11-9, 11-5, 5-11, 7-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7; Sougata Sarkar (LIC) bt P.V. Reddy (RBI) 11-8, 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 9-11, 10-12, 11-4.
A. Amalraj (PSPB) bt Abhimanyu Mitra (WB) 12-10, 8-11, 7-11, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8; Lalrin Puia (Miz) bt Subash Mani (TN) 11-7, 11-9, 11-5, 7-11, 10-12, 11-8.
Women: Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) bt Anjali Rohilla (Har) 10-12, 11-3, 11-5, 4-11, 11-9, 11-7; Amrutha Pushpak (TN) bt Soumi Mondal (PSPB) 4-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-6, 4-11, 11-3, 11-3; Poulami Das (WB) bt Himani Chaturvedi (MP) 10-12, 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5.
Anindita Chakraborty (RSPB) bt Sanya Sehgal (Har) 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 6-11, 5-11, 13-11, 11-8; Sagarika Mukherjee (RSPB) bt Senhora D’Souza (Mah) 5-11, 11-6, 11-5, 8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-3; Pooja Sahasrabudhe (PSPB) bt Anushka Dutta (RSPB) 7-11, 11-4, 6-11, 7-11, 14-12, 11-2, 11-3.