Anirban Ghosh of Railways is considered a promising talent but a few might argue that he has not fulfilled even a fraction of his immense potential.
In the quarterfinals of the 11Sports-West Zone National-ranking table tennis tournament here on Monday, the 19-year-old showed how gifted he is, by defeating Sudanshu Grover (PSPB) 11-3, 8-11, 11-4, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6 to advance to his first semifinals in six years in the men’s section.
Manika Batra, the second seed, fought back from the brink to put it past Ayhika Mukherjee 6-11, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6, 11-7.
A section of the stands went into raptures watching Sudanshu and Anirban play an attacking game from the back of the table. It was a delight to see Anirban play a fast-paced game with some superb backhands and forehands.
Anirban should have finished the contest in the fifth game, as he was leading 4-2 and then 9-8, but Sudanshu got three straight points to bag the game.
The sixth game belonged to Anirban. Backed by good receive and excellent finish, he ran up a 5-2 and 9-6 lead before winning it comfortably.
“This season, despite having a good draw in all the domestic tournaments, I couldn’t perform as I put too much pressure on myself. This time, I did well on my receives and was consistent on my backhand,” said Anirban, who is a qualifier here.
In the women’s quarterfnals, with both playing with long pimpled rubbers, there were few attacking rallies as both were content in being consistent. And it was Ayhika, who was more so as she won the first three games pretty comfortably.
Manika crawled her way back, attacking on her forehand whenever the opportunity presented itself and varying her backhand chops/push cleverly. The Commonwealth Games star was a tad lucky in the seventh and deciding game as she had three net-chord winners.
A. Amalraj, the men’s top seed, put an end to Vivek Bhargava’s fine run with a 4-0 margin in the quarterfinals. Vivek had defeated Siddhesh Pande, the eighth seed, in the round of 32 and ninth-seeded Jubin Kumar in the pre-quarterfinals.
Sharath Kamal put the brakes on qualifier M. Subash, winning in straight games to enter the last four. Subash had ousted Shreyal Telang in the pre-quarterfinals.
The results (quarterfinals, PSPB unless mentioned): Men: A. Amalraj bt Vivek Bhargava (Raj) 11-9, 12-10, 11-5, 11-6; A. Sharath Kamal bt M. Subash (I&AD) 13-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9; Sanil Shetty bt Birdie Boro (Asm) 11-9, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7; Anirban Ghosh (RSPB) bt Sudhanshu Grover 11-3, 8-11, 11-4, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6.
Women: Divya Deshpande bt Selena Deepthi Selvakumar (AAI) 11-2, 4-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-8; Sagarika Mukherjee (RSPB) bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe 11-7, 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 14-16, 11-4; Madhurika Patkar bt Reeth Rishya 6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 13-11, 11-9; Manika Batra bt Ayhika Mukherjee (RBI) 6-11, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6, 11-7.