SILIGURI, JANUARY 8: Raj Mondal of North Bengal knocked PSPB’s Harmeet Desai out in the quarterfinals of the Indian Oil 73rd Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships here at the Municipal Corporation Indoor Stadium on Sunday.

Though ranked one slot above Desai No. 4, Mondal created a record of sorts against his PSPB rival winning all his matches this season. Mondal won 9-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6 and will take on G. Sathiyan in the semifinals later today. In the other semifinals, Soumyajit Ghosh will take on Sudhanshu Grover.

However hard he tried to come back, Mondal was very much in the driver’s seat to beat a much-fancied rival in terms of standards.

There were a few more upsets each in the youth boys and girls sections No. 2 seed Sushmit Sriram of Tamil Nadu, who lost to No. 7 Sudanshu Grover of PSPB-A  Manika Batra exited from the quarter-finals 3-4 while No. 4 Mallika Bhandarkar of Maharashtra A lost to No. 7 Nikhat Bhanu of Andhra Pradesh 2-4.

A leg injury to Manika restricted her movement and taking advantage of that Nikhat took a 3-0 lead. From there, the match was heading only one way and Nikhat, despite conceding the next, wrapped it up quickly.

As for the junior girls and boys sections, the seeded players took their appointed slots in the semifinals.  

The Results:

JUNIOR BOYS: Quarterfinals:
Sudhanshu Grover (PSPBA) bt Lalrinpuia (PSPBA) 11-7, 11-5, 11-9, 11-4.
Anandaraj R (TN) bt Utkarsh Gupta (Dli) 11-6, 12-10, 11-7, 11-9, Vivek Bhargava (PSPBA) bt Birdie Boro (PSPBA) 16-14, 6-11, 11-9, 11-13, 11-7, 11-3.
Abhishek Yadav (PSPBA) bt Shubhankar Renavikar (Mah-A) 11-6, 11-7, 11-6, 11-6.

JUNIOR GIRLS: Quarterfinals:
Karnam Spoorthy (AP) bt Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) 6-11, 11-9, 11-6, 13-11, 11-7
Manika Batra (PSPB) bt Narasimha Priya S (TN) 3-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7
Mallika Bhandarkar (Mah-A) bt Sagarika Mukherjee (NB) 11-6, 11-3, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4
Reeth Rishya (PSPB) bt Senhora D’Souza (Mah-A) 11-7, 11-5, 9-11, 11-5, 10-12, 11-3.

YOUTH BOYS: Quarterfinals:
Sathiyan G (PSPB) bt Prabhakaran E (TN) 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-4, 5-11, 11-2
Raj Mondal (NB) bt Harmeet Desai (PSPB) 9-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6
Soumyajit Ghosh (PSPB) bt Mohit Verma (PSPBA) 11-8, 11-8, 11-2, 11-7
Sudanshu Grover (PSPBA) bt  Sushmit Sriram (TN) 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-7, 7-11, 8-11, 11-7.

YOUTH GIRLS: Quarterfinals:
Ankita Das (PSPB) bt Karnam Spoorthy (AP) 11-5, 12-10, 11-6, 11-4
Reeth Rishya (PSPB) bt Mallika Bhandarkar (Mah-A) 11-6, 11-3, 7-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4
Pooja Sahasrabudhe (PSPB) bt Sheweta Parte (Mah-A) 11-2, 11-3, 11-4, 11-7
Nikhat Bhanu (AP) bt Manika Batra (PSPB) 11-7, 11-9, 12-10, 4-11, 11-5.