Panaji, November 1: Third-seeded Anirban Ghosh, fifth-seeded Yashansh Malik and seventh-seeded Ankur Bhattacharya stood out with their performance in the men's singles even as other seeds fell by the wayside in the table tennis events of the National Games at the Campal Indoor Stadium today.

The only unseeded player to join the semifinal fray was Priyanuj Bhattacharyya of Assam, who defeated Shubh Goel of Delhi 4-0. In the other matches, Delhi lad Yashansh dropped two games against Jeet Chandra, No. 4 seed, but won 4-1, as Anirban followed him in the same way, winning his quarterfinals 4-1 against Divyansh Srivastava of UP, and Ankur blanked out Junin Kumar 4-0.

Only the Yashansh-Jeet match aroused the interest of the spectators as they could feast on long rallies and fast-paced games. In comparison, Ankur did what he does best against left-handed Jubin of Haryana. Jubin could not cope with the pressure and wilted.

In the singles quarterfinals for women, Diya Chitale of Maharashtra defeated Gladlyn Sagayaraj of Tamil Nadu 4-0, and her state mate Swastika Ghosh followed suit with an identical win over Kavyashree Baskar, also from Tamil Nadu.

 But the third and fourth quarterfinals got stretched as Lakshita Narang from Delhi, after squandering two match points, beat Yashaswini Ghorpade from Karnataka 4-2, and Archana Kamath of Karnataka accounted for Mouma Das of West Bengal 4-2.

The Delhi girl had everything going nice for her when she led comfortably 3-0 and 10-8 in the fourth game. But the Karnataka girl fought back well to reduce the margin. In the sixth game, Yashaswini was one game point up at 11-10, but Lakshita levelled the score and took the crucial two points, much to the relief of the Delhi camp.

Abhishek Yadav and Divyansh Srivastava of UP downed Jeet Chanda and Ronit Bhanja from West Bengal 3-1 in the men's doubles final. The UP pair will meet Ankur Bhattacharya and Anirban Ghosh as the West Bengal duo defeated Sanil Shetty and Siddhesh Pande from Maharashtra 3-1.

In the women's doubles semifinals, Sagarika Mukherjee and Kaushani Nath of West Bengal combined well to beat Chipia Frenaz and Fatema Kadri of Gujarat 3-1. The winners will take on Swastika Ghosh and Shruti Amrute of Maharashtra as the pair defeated Selena Selvakumar and Harshavardhini of Tamil Nadu 3-2 as the latter faltered after taking a 2-0 lead.

The semifinals and finals will be played on the last day tomorrow.

Results:

Men: Quarterfinals: Priyanuj Bhattacharyya (Asm) bt Shubh Goel (Del) 11-9, 11-6, 12-10, 11-7; Yashansh Malik (Del) bt Jeet Chanda (WB) 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 5-11, 11-7, 11-6; Anirban Ghosh bt Divyansh Srivastava (UP) 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9; Ankur Bhattacharya (WB) bt Jubin Kumar (Har) 11-7, 11-5, 11-7, 11-4.

Women: Quarterfinals: Diya Chitale (Mah) bt Gladlyn Sagayaraj (TN) 11-9, 12-10, 11-5, 11-5; Swastika Ghosh (Mah) bt Kavyashree Baskar (TN) 11-5, 17-15, 11-8, 11-6; Lakshita Narang (Del) Yashaswini Ghorpade (Mar) 11-5, 11-9, 11-7, 11-13, 10-12, 13-11; Archana Kamath (Kar) bt Mouma Das (WB) 13-11, 11-8, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-4.

Men’s Doubles: Semifinals: Abhishek Yadav/Divyansh Srivastava (UP) bt Jeet Chandra/Ronit Bhanja (WB) 8-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-8; Ankur Bhattacharya/Anirban Ghosh (WB) bt Sanil Shetty/Siddhesh Pande (Mah) 11-7, 13-15, 11-7, 13-11.

Women’s Doubles: Semifinals: Sagaraika Mukherjee/Kaushani Nath (WB) bt Chipia Frenaz/Fatema Kadri (Guj) 11-7, 12-10, 11-5; Swastika Ghosh/Shruti Amrute (Mah) bt Selena Selvakumar/Harshavardhini (TN) 5-11, 11-13, 11-8, 11-5, 11-5.