Durgapur, January 19: Gujarat escaped by the skin of their teeth to reach the Youth Boys quarterfinals in the 11Sports 79th Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships at the Sidhu Kanu Indoor Stadium here today.

They beat Mizoram 3-2 and Ishaan Hingorani doing the honours for them with the crucial rubber win after Manush Shah failed to win his reverse singles against Lalhunhlua. It was he who made a bright opening for Mizoram when he defeated Ishaan Hingorani 7-11, 11-8, 11-3, 5-11, 11-8. But Manush restored parity with an easy 11-4, 11-7, 11-5.

Then Gujarat strengthened their grip when Kaushal Bhatta beat Lalroulahpuia 11-8, 11-6, 11-5. Things went in favour of Gujarat until then but Manush lost to Lalhunhlua 6-11, 10-12, 8-11 to give Mizoram a semblance of chance. Ishaan, however, ensured that Gujarat sailed into quarters without any further hiccups, beating his rival Lalruatsanga 14-12, 11-5, 11-6 in the toughest pre-quarterfinal contest.

In Youth Girls, star-studded Reserve Bank of India, struggled past Delhi 3-2 after Srishti Gupta let Sreeja Akula off the hook in the decider after leading 2-1 and 8-6. Once Akula deuced and took the game 12-10, it was all over bar the shouting for Delhi as Sreeja won 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-8. Earlier, Srishti was consumed by Ayhika Mukherjee in straight games before Ishita Gupta brought Delhi back into reckoning with a 11-7, 20-18, 11-5 marathon win over Sreeja. Aanchal Malhotra put Delhi ahead beating Harshavardhni 6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8 but Ishita lost her rubber to Ayhika 3-11, 5-11, 5-11, leaving the issue to be settled between Sreeja and Srishti.  

In other pre-quarters that went down to the wire Uttar Pradesh beat Mahrashtra B 3-2, North Bengal struggled before beating Odisha 3-2.

In other Junior Boys tough matches, Maharashtra B boys struggled past Karnataka 3-2, North Bengal was taken the full distance by Punjab before the former won 3-2.

An improved Karnataka’s never-say-die attitude helped them stay in hunt until the decider. But Jitender Yadav made it a one-sided contest to win against Neeraj Raj 18-16, 11-7, 11-9 to sew it up for Maharashtra B. Earlier, Hrishikesh Malhotra began on a bright note to beat Neeraj Raj 12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9 but Jitender Yadav lost to Rohan Jamadagni 7-11, 12-10, 6-11, 7-11.

But the two Maharashtra players combined well to beat the Karnataka pair 11-7, 7-11, 11-7, 7-11, 13-11. In his reverse singles, Hrishikesh Malhotra lost to Rohan 9-11, 8-11, 12-10, 13-15 to leave it to Neeraj for the turnaround.

Nikhil Kumar’s heroics—he won his first singles against Jayabrata Bhattacharjee and helped in doubles win—was not good enough as Jayabrata played the spoilsport by winning the crucial reverse singles to show the door to Punjab. Sharath Thakur, their weak link, was well exploited by North Bengal who, despite losing their doubles to Punjab, managed a last-minute quarterfinal passage.  

But in Junior Girls, there was a lone surprise when Madhya Pradesh downed Maharashtra A 3-1 as the latter failed to put up any resistance in the pre-quarterfinals. But for this, fancied teams had little difficulty in putting it across their rivals in the pre-quarterfinals.

With Anusha Kutumbale leading the charge, Madhya Pradesh was in the driver’s seat. And taking her responsibility seriously, Anusha first beat Srushti Haleangadi 11-9, 8-11, 3-11, 11-7, 11-2, then combined with Aru Vaishnava to beat Swastika Ghosh 12-10, 4-11, 11-3, 3-11, 11-4 and also won her reverse singles against Swastika 6-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-9. In the second singles, Swastika beat Kushi Jain 11-5, 11-8, 11-9—the only win that Maharashtra notched up.

Results (Team Pre-quarterfinals):

Junior Boys): PSPBA bt Uttar Pradesh 3-0, Maharashtra B bt Karnataka 3-2, North Bengal bt Punjab 3-2, Telangana bt Assam 3-0, Gujarat bt Haryana 3-0, Tamil Nadu bt Kerala 3-2, West Bengal bt Delhi 3-0, Maharashtra A bt Uttarakhand 3-0.

Junior Girls: Tamil Nadu bt Delhi 3-1, Krnataka bt Kerala 3-0, Uttar Pradesh bt Maharashtra B 3-1, Telangana bt Rajasthan 3-1, Madhya Pradesh bt Maharashtra A 3-1, Andhra Pradesh bt Gujarat 3-0, North Bengal bt Haryana 3-1, West Bengal bt Odisha 3-1.

Youth Boys: West Bengal bt Assam 3-1, Delhi bt Maharashtra B 3-0, Tamil Nadu bt Kerala 3-1, Gujarat bt Mizoram 3-2, Telangana bt Rajasthan 3-0, Maharashtra A bt Uttar Pradesh 3-0, Karnataka bt Punjab 3-0, PSPB bt Haryana 3-0

Youth Girls: Tamil Nadu bt Rajasthan 3-0, Uttar Pradesh bt Maharashtra B 3-2, Telangana bt Karnataka 3-1, Kerala bt Assam 3-0, RBI bt Delhi 3-2, North Bengal bt Odisha 3-2, Maharashtra A bt Punjab 3-2, West Bengal bt Haryana 3-0.