TT nationals: 15-year-old qualifier Syndrela Das enters semis

Bengal’s 15-year-old qualifier Syndrela Das staged a brilliant comeback to enter the semifinals of the women’s singles at the 86th Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships in Surat on Saturday (January 25).

Also read: TN teens win doubles title

Up against Gujarat’s Krittwika Sinha Roy in the quarterfinals at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium, Syndrela displayed nerves of steel to bounce back twice in the best-of-seven games.

Syndrela’s comeback

Syndrela lost the opening two games, and later was 1-3 down, need to win the next three games, which she did to progress to the last-four phase with a score of 4-3 (10-12, 5-11, 11-7, 9-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-5).

Also read: Ankur Bhattacharjee: Inspired by Kohli and Hardik, Bengal's teen TT star dreams big

“This is my second senior nationals appearance and feels good to beat Krittwika Didi, who was in form today. I was 1-3 down and from there I made a comeback. It feels good to win against her,” Syndrela shared her excitement with The Federal after the win.

When queried whether she was confident of progressing this far, she said, “Yes, of course. I had a vision, that I can do it. There is nothing called impossible. Today, I played good table tennis. My focus was to play to my strength, and everything worked out well.”

On her semifinal opponent Diya Parag Chitale, Syndrela said, “I will play against Diya Didi. I have played two times against her, I lost a very close match. Tomorrow, hopefully, I am focussed, in my zone, and I can outplay her.”

In other quarterfinals, Sreeja Akula of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Yashaswini Ghorpade of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), and Diya (RBI) won. Sreeja will face Yashaswini in the semifinals on Sunday.

“I am happy to win the women’s doubles, and now looking forward to the singles semifinals tomorrow. I want to give my best. Today was a tough day playing six matches,” Sreeja, who earlier in the day won the women’s doubles title partnering Diya, told The Federal.

Ankur in men’s singles semis

In the men’s quarterfinals, Bengal’s 18-year-old rising star Ankur Bhattacharjee cruised to a 4-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-9, 11-6) win over Sarth Mishra of Uttar Pradesh. Payas Jain of Delhi stunned top seed G Sathiyan 4-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-5, 11-6). The other two quarterfinals were won by Divyansh Srivastava of Uttar Pradesh and Manush Shah of RBI.

Earlier in the day, the women’s singles witnessed six seeded players getting eliminated in the Round of 32. Among them were second seed Swastika Ghosh, third seed Sutirtha Mukherjee, ninth seed Sayali Wani, 11th seed Jennifer Varghese, 13th seed Ayhika Mukherjee, and 14th seed Selena Deepthi Selvakumar. The upsets continued in the pre-quarterfinals, where sixth seed Reeth Rishya, 10th seed Pritha Vartikar, and 15th seed Anusha Kutumbale also exited.

The same trend was seen in the men’s singles, with defending champion and fourth seed Harmeet Desai suffering a shocking Round of 32 defeat to his long-time rival and former national champion Sanil Shetty. Other casualties in the same round included seventh seed Anirban Ghosh, 10th seed Yashansh Malik, 13th seed Sourav Saha, and 14th seed Ronit Bhanja.

The pre-quarterfinals brought some relief, with only fifth seed Akash Pal from Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) being ousted. He went down to Divyansh Srivastava of Uttar Pradesh 11-8, 8-11, 4-11, 9-11.

Notable performances came from Tamil Nadu youngsters Kavyashree Baskar and Yashini Sivashankar, who stunned the Asian Games bronze medallists in women’s doubles with identical 3-2 wins.

Krittwika avenges husband Harmeet’s loss

Sanil’s 3-1 triumph over local hero and Olympian Harmeet highlighted his dominance after an initial setback in the opening game. Similarly, up-and-coming Maharashtra talent Ananya Chande made short work of second-seed Swastika, winning in straight games.

Reeth’s pre-quarterfinal loss to Krittwika was a nail-biter, with the latter prevailing 11-8, 8-11, 12-10, 8-11, 16-14 in a match marked by missed match points from both sides. With this, Krittwika avenged her husband Harmeet’s loss by beating Sanil’s wife Reeth.

“It feels good to beat the defending champion Harmeet. This was my best comeback because for the whole season, I was not well. This victory will boost my confidence. I feel Harmeet was under more pressure than me since he had to defend his title. Normally, we meet in the semifinals but here, we were facing each other in the third round, that too would have added pressure on him. In the end, I would say, I played some extraordinary points that helped to clinch this close contest,” Sanil told The Federal after defeating Harmeet.

The semifinals and the finals will be played on Sunday.

Men: Ankur Bhattacharjee (PSPB) beat Sarth Mishra (Uttar Pradesh) 4-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-9, 11-6); Manush Shah (RBI) beat Manav Thakkar (PSPB) 4-2 (11-8, 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 8-11, 11-6); Payas Jain (Delhi) beat G Sathiyan (PSPB) 4-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-5, 11-6); Divyansh Srivastava (Uttar Pradesh) bt Sanil Shetty (PSPB) 4-2 (12-10, 9-11, 10-12, 11-5, 13-11, 11-9).

Semifinal lineup: Ankur vs Manush; Payas vs Divyansh.

Women: Syndrela Das (Bengal) beat Krittwika Sinha Roy (Gujarat) 4-3 (10-12, 5-11, 11-7, 9-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-5); Diya Parag Chitale (RBI) beat Ananya Chande (Maharashtra) 4-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-9, 11-1); Yashaswini Ghorpade (PSPB) beat Taneesha Kotecha (Maharashtra) 4-1 (11-5, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6); Sreeja Akula (RBI) beat Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) 4-0 (11-9, 12-10, 11-9, 11-6).

Semifinal lineup: Syndrela vs Diya; Sreeja vs Yashaswini.

Doubles

Men: Final: PB Abhinandh/Preyesh Suresh Raj (Tamil Nadu) beat Sourav Saha/Aniket Sen Choudhury (Bengal) 3-1 (12-10, 4-11, 11-6, 11-7).

Semifinals: Abhinandh/Preyesh beat Akash Pal/Ronit Bhanja (RSPB) 3-1 (12-10, 2-11, 12-10, 14-12); Sourav/Aniket bt Payas Jain/Yashansh Malik (Delhi) 3-2 (9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6).

Women: Final: Sreeja Akula/Diya Chitale (RBI) beat Suhana Saini/Prithoki Chakraborti (Haryana) 3-2 (12-14, 11-4, 11-4, 11-13, 11-4).

Semifinals: Suhana/Prithoki beat Selenadeepthi S/Yashin Sivashankar (TN) 3-2 (11-8, 4-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-8); Sreeja/Diya bt Kaushani Nath/Moumita Dutta (RSPB) 3-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-5).