New Delhi, August 5: Top-seeded and reigning national champion Madhurika had to endure qualifier Shruti Amrute for more than she should have before overcoming in the women singles to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the LPS Bossard 47th All India Inter-Institutional Championships at the Table Tennis Foundation hall here today.

After the initial struggle Madhurika, who was down 1-3, struck a nice rhythm and recovered well in time to win 4-3. But for this aberration, all seeded players entered the round of 16. However, there were some problems with higher ranked players like Ayhika Mukherjee of RBI and Divya Deshpande of PSPB in the round of 32 who bowed out to lesser qualifiers. Ayhika was sent packing by Shailu Noorbasha of AAI 4-3 while Divya went down to Priyadarshini Das of RBI for a similar score.

Madurhika seemed down and out when the left-handed Shruti took a more than comfortable lead of 3-1. But the PSPB lass launched truly well with crisp shots in the fifth game and played like a champion that she is. Cutting out the net flaws she was prone to in the earlier games, she attacked on the flanks really well to push her opponent on the back foot.

Some service winners and a few high balls sent down by Shruti, too, helped her cause further. So much so, she shut her opponent out in the fifth game, allowing her just two points while in the next a couple more. And once she levelled the score, Madhurika went all out and won 5-11, 11-7, 6-11, 14-16, 11-2, 11-4, 11-8 as pain on Air India youngster’s forlorn face was palpable.

The men singles round of 32 was as easy for the seeded players as it was for some of among them who did not enjoy first-round byes. It was pathetic to see Sushmit Sriram of AAI, who has a reputation of upsetting big reputations, went down early and Railways Ravindira Kotiyan had to play out of his skin to beat Sarthak Seth, a junior player from UP.

It was business as usual for Sharath, Sathiyan, Soumyajit Ghosh, Amalraj, Harmeet Desai or, for that matter, Arjun Ghosh, Subhajit Saha and Sougata Sarkar.

Results (Round of 32):

Men Singles: A Sharath Kamal (PSPB) bt Zubin Taraporewall (IA&ID) 4-0, A. Amalraj (PSPB) bt Vivek Bhargava (Raj) 4-1, Sudhanshu Grover (PSPB) bt Pankaj Viswakarma (RSPB) 4-2, Soumyajit Ghosh (PSPB) bt Nitin Thiruvengadam (CB) 4-0, Raj Mondal (RBI) bt Ronit Bhanja (PSPB) 4-1, Sanil Shetty (PSPB) Airban Ghosh (AAI) 4-0, Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Sushmit Sriram (AAI) 4-1, G. Sathiyan b Manush Shah (AAI) 4-0, Ravindra Kotiyan (RSPB) bt Sarthak Sethi (UP) 4-3, Arjun Ghosh (AAI) bt Birdie Boro (PSPB) 4-1, Devesh Karia (CRSB) Jubin Kumar (PSPB) 4-0, Subhajit Saha (PSPB) bt Lalrin Puia (AAI) 4-1, Anirban Nandi (RSPB) bt Manav Thakkar (PSPB) 4-1, Sougata Sarka (LIC) bt Utkarsh Gupta (PSPB) 4-2, Sourav Saha (PSPB) bt Souvik Kar (RSPB) 4-1, Abhishek Yadav (PSPB) bt Mai Subhash (IA&AD) 4-2.

Women Singles: Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) bt Shruti Amrute ( AI)  4-3, Manushree Patil (AAI) bt Anusha Kutumble (MP) 4-3, Reeth Rishya (PSPB) bt Nikhat Banu (RBI) 4-1, Archana Kamath (PSPB) bt Abinaya Ramesh (FCI) 4-0, Poulomi Ghatak (PSPB) bt Shweta Parte (RBI) 4-1, Anindita Chakraborty (RSPB) bt Mariya Rony (KRL) 4-1, Ankita Das (PSPB) bt Anuska Dutta (RSPB) 4-0, Akula Sreeja (RBI) bt Priyanka Pareek (AAI) 4-2, Pooja Sahasrabuddhe (PSPB) bt Chipia Frenaz (AAI) 4-1, Shailu Noorbasha (AAI) bt Ayhika Mukherjee (RBI) 4-3, Mousumi Paul (PSPB) bt Shreya Deshpande (AI) 4-0, Manika Batra (PSPB) bt Amrutha Pushpak (RBI) 4-1, Takeme Sarkar bt Varuni Jaiswal (PSPB) 4-2,Priyadarshini Das (RBI) bt Divya Deshpande 4-3, Krittiwika Sinha Roy (PSPB) bt Sagarika Mukherjee (RSPB) 4-3, Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) bt Manasi Chiplunkar (AI) 4-0).