Ajmer, November 28:  Unseeded Reeth Rishya caused the major upset of the day when she defeated No. 3 seed Ayhika Mukherjee 4-1 to enter the quarterfinals of the 49th Inter-Institutional Table Tennis Championships at the MCC Indoor Stadium here today.

The day also saw a few other seeds being sent back but Reeth’s was a revelation as the talented PSPB paddler showed glimpses of her past.

Manika Batra had a starting trouble but hit the groove nicely against Bank of Baroda’s Senhora D’Souza, who lacked in endgame despite playing well against the top seed, who won 4-1. Among the other top-half seeds, fourth and fifth seeds—Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath—barely survived, thanks to some fine push by their unseeded opponents, Moumita Dutta of Railways and Amrutha Pushpak of RBI. Sreeja won 4-3 and Archana won 4-2 to enter the quarterfinals.

But former national champion and No. 8 seed Madhurika Patkar put up a valiant effort against PSPB team mate Mousumi Paul, who had the last laugh. Madhurika down 0-3 launched herself late in the match to catch up with Mousumi at 3-3. But in the decider the eight-seed failed push the envelope and her rival surged into a good lead to maintain throughout.   

Second-seeded Sutirtha dropped just a game before winding up business against Sagarika Mukherjee 4-1 but No. 3 Ayhika Mukherjee, who went down 1-4 to unseeded Reeth Rishya, was not at all in her elements.  An improved Reeth’s job was made easy as Ayhka made several unforced errors, besides giving away too many negatives.

But Shanmathi Sathyamoorthi of FCI, who just recovered from high temperature the day before, played brilliantly against RPSPB’s Kaushani Nath, but failed to capitalize on the chances. Leading 2-0 she could have made it 3-0 but her opponent won the extended game on her third game point. In the decider Shanmathi ran her close after trailing 0-5 down to come close at 4-5 but them three consecutive negatives emboldened the case of Kaushani who won 4-3. Selena, on the other hand, messed it up after a comfortable 2-0 lead against Krittiwika before bowing out 2-4.

In the morning, Anusha Kutumbale could not justify her seeding and went down to Shanmathi 2-4. The FCI woman beat the No. 6 seed 11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 13-11, 10-12, 11-8.

Earlier in the day, among men’s top-eight seeds, only six remained in fray with No. 7 and No. 8 seeds, Jeet Chandra and Sudhanshu Grover, both of PSPB, exited in the second round of men singles. Hrishikesh Malhotra of Air India consumed Jeet 11-8, 11-6, 3-11, 11-7, 11-9, while Sudhanshu Grover went down 8-11, 4-11, 6-11, 8-11 in what was an absolute surrender.

Both the PSPB paddler were expected to go through at least until the quarters but, after having enjoyed first-round bye, nobody expected them to bow out the way they did in the round of 32. Those who had progressed in the morning play the round of 16 later tonight.

Results:

Women Singles: Pre-Quarterfinals: Manika Batra bt Senhora D’Souza (BBCSB) 2-11, 15-13, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5; Mousumi Pal bt Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) 11-7, 11-3, 11-2, 5-11, 8-11, 6-11, 11-4; Archana G. Kamath bt Amrutha Pushpak (RBI 11-5, 8-11, 11-1, 7-11, 11-3, 11-8; Sreeja Akula bt Moumita Dutta (RSPB) 5-11, 11-7, 11-5, 6-11, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10;……..; Kaushani Nath bt Shanmathi Sathyamoorthy (FCI) 7-11, 10-12, 15-13, 11-5, 6-11, 11-2, 11-4; Reeth Rishya bt Ayhika Mukherjee (RBI) 11-6, 6-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8; Krittwika Sinha Roy bt Selenadeepthi Selvakumar (AAI) 9-11, 3-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6; Sutirtha Mukherjee bt Sagarika Mukherjee (RSPB) 11-1, 7-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-3.

Women Doubles: Quarterfinals: Ayhika Mukherjee/Sreeja Akula bt Surbhi Patwari/Munmun Kundu (AAI) 11-4, 11-9, 5-11, 11-6; Shruti Amrute/Sagarika Mukherjee bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe/Ankita Das (PSPB) 10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9; Moumita Dutta/Kaushani Nath bt Amrutha Pushpak/Nikhat Banu (RBI) 4-11, 11-5, 11-6, 10-12, 11-8; Yashaswini Ghorpade/Vanshika Bhargava bt Mamata Prabhu/Senhora D’Souza (BBCSB) 11-3, 11-6, 11-9.

Men Doubles: Pre-Quarterfinals: Sanil Shetty/Gaurav Lohapatre/Mandar Hardikar (AI) 3-0; Abhimanyu Mitra/Subash Mani bt Nitin Thiruvengadam/Abinay Vijay (BBSCB) 3-2; Anirban Ghosh/Anirband Nandi bt Sougata Sarkar/Rohit Chakraborti (LIC) 3-2;Sushmit Sriram/Akash Pal bt Soham Bhattacharya/Aniket Sen Choudhury (CB) 3-2; Sourav Saha/Jeet Chandra bt Raj Mondal/Vighney Patel (RBI) 14-12, 11-2, 11-9; Siddesh Pande/Chinmaya Somaiya bt Kiranjoy Pushilal/Hirakjyoti Pushilal (WB) 11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 11-6; Arjun Ghosh/Ronit Bhanja bt Omkar Torgalkar/Ravindra Kotiyan (RSPB) 11-9, 11-7, 11-4; Jubin Kumar/Soumyajit Ghosh bt Vivek Bhargava/Shubham Ojha (IA&AD) 11-5, 11-6, 10-12, 11-8.

Mixed Doubles: Quarterfinals: Vighney Patel/Priyadarsini Das w/o A Sharath Kamal/Manika Batra (PSPB) 3-0; Ronit Bhanja/Selenadeepthi S bt Jubin Kumar/Sanya Sehgal (Har) 11-9, 11-8 7-11, 11-8; Sanil Shetty/Reeth Rishya bt SFR Snehit/Surbhi Patwari (AAI) 11-4, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9; Arjun Ghosh/Mallika Bhandarkar bt Sourav Saha/Sutirtha Mukherjee (PSPB) 6-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-2.