Indore, October 10: Mouma Das felled top-seed Poulomi Ghatak 4-1 to move into the women’s singles semifinals of the National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships at Abhay Prashal here today.

In all-Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) show, Mouma Das will take on reigning national champion Ankita Das, who defeated Reeth Rishya 4-1, in the first semifinals tomorrow. The second one will feature Suthirtha Mukherjee and No. 2 seed Pooja Sahasrabudhe. Suthirtha won 4-2 against Mousumi Paul while Pooja routed Airport Authority of India’s Krittwika Sinha Roy 4-0.

In men’s singles, top-seeded G. Sathiyan, No. 2 seed and national champion Sanil Shetty, both of PSPB, giant killer Devesh Karia from Gujarat and another PSPB man, Subhajit Saha entered the semifinals. Sathiyan beat North Bengal Raj Mondal 4-3, Saha won against Amal Balgu of Maharashtra 4-1 from the top half while form the bottom half, Karia ousted Soumyadeep Roy 4-2 and Shetty downed Nitin Thiruvengadam of AAI 4-2 for a semifinal meeting with each other.

In Youth Girls, Manika Batra wil take on Ayhika Mukherjee in the first semifinals tomorrow and in the second, Reeth Rishya will meet Mallika Bhandrakar.

After a clinical performance in the morning one expected Poulomi to continue in same vein. But 31-year-old Mouma was in her own comfortable zone and, exhibiting a close-to-the-table show, simply outwitted the six-time former national champion. Mouma won 11-5, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 11-5 to stamp her authority as well sound out a warning to her young opponent in the semifinal.

As for Ankita, she picked up momentum from the very first game, winning it by the slimmest margin. Though she won her second game convincingly, Reeth grabbed the next but couldn’t do much after as Ankita won 11-9, 11-6, 4-11, 11-4, 11-8. In contrast, Suthirtha had a tough match as Mousumi kept pressing hard with clever backhand returns. But beyond a point, she was not able to meet the challenge posed by Suthirtha who triumphed 11-4, 12-10, 7-11, 11-6, 6-11, 11-8. However, for the No. 2 seed Pooja it was a cakewalk as Krittwika failed to match her opponent’s blistering speed and accurate forehand winners.

Earlier, Airport Authority of India’s Nitin Thiruvengadam and Gujarat’s Devesh Karia had to bring out their best against LIC’s Sathiswaran Lakshminarayanan and PSPB Academy’s Lalrin Puia, respectively to enter the men’s singles quarterfinals.

Nitin overcame Sathiswaran 4-3 and so did Devesh against Puia in the best-of-seven affairs. They were joined six others in the quarterfinals by PSPB’s G. Sathiyan, who beat West Bengal’s Anirban Gosh 4-0, RBI’s Raj Mondal, who won over PSPB’s Sourav Saha 4-2, PSPB’s Subhajit Saha, who accounted for AAI’s Vivek Bhargava 4-2, Maharashtra’s Aman Balgu, who decimated LIC’s Sougata Sarkar 4-0 and, finally, veteran PSPB player Soumyadeep Roy downing teammate Sudhanshu Grover 4-2.

Karia, visibly under pressure after being 1-3 down, pulled up his socks to stage a fine comeback to beat Puia 11-7, 7-11, 11-13, 6-11, 14-12, 11-6, 11-9. Puia, incidentally, was thwas a time when it looked like LIC’s Sathiswaran had sewn up the match in his favour. Down 0-3, he made it 3-3 only to lose rhythm and momentum as Nitin simply won the decider for a 11-3, 11-5, 12-10, 7-11, 4-11, 6-11, 11-6.  

Top-seeded Poulomi Ghatak was on a roll in the morning, beating North Bengal rival Sagarika Mukherjee 4-0 in the pre-quarterfinals. The PSPB veteran just went about here demolishing job in the most clinical way possible to win 11-7, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5. Mouma Das defeated Manika Batra 4-3(8-11, 12-10, 8-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-4) in what was a young vs old affair. Manika, despite leading 3-1, squandered the lead to succumb to the pressure.

Reeth Rishya had downed Ayhika Mukherjee in straight games of 11-6, 11-6, 13-11, 11-6, while Ankita Das downed West Bengal rival Moumita Dutta 11-8, 11-5, 12-10, 11-9 after Suthirtha Mukherjee ousted higher ranked Madhurika Patkar 11-4, 11-8, 5-11, 11-3, 12-10.

Former national champion K. Shamini lost to her PSPB teammate Mousumi Paul 9-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 6-11. Incidentally, Shamini had to play the qualifiers for the first time in many years after she missed the Institutional championships early this season. AAI’s Krittwika Sinha Roy found an easy prey in Delhi’s Riti Shankan whom the former mowed down 11-5, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5 and Pooja Sahasrabudhe accounted for Railways’ Pallabi Kundu 13-11, 11-6, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6.