Pudhucherry, January 16: Haryana’s Jubin Kumar sent reigning national champion and No. 3 seed Sanil Shetty packing in the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the 76th Senior Nationals at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here today. Jubin won 4-3 (7-11, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9, 11-8).

No. 2 seed Devesh Karia of Gujarat, who had a wonderful outing this season, lost to qualifier Raj Mondal from West Bengal who beat him 4-1.

Earlier, another former national champion Anthony Amalraj bowed out in the second round of the main draw, losing to eighth seed Sushmit Srirarm, after comfortably leading 3-1. Sriram also won 4-3 (11-9, 7-11, 7-11, 8-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-8).

In women’s pre-quarterfinals, all but fifth and sixth seeded paddlers went out of reckoning. Both No. 5 and No. 6 seeds, Mousumi Paul, who gave a scare to former national champion K. Shamini, lost 3-4 and No. 6 Madhurika Patkar went down to unseeded Nehal Aggarwal 3-4.

The quarterfinals in both sections will be played tonight with only the semifinals and finals slated for the morrow, the concluding day of the championships, along with the men and women’s doubles finals.

Of all the upsets on the day, Sanil Shetty’s must hurt the Petroleum player the most as he was not only having a smooth ride but was even expected to defend the title he won at Patna last year. What befell on him, no one knows, including the attacking and stylish left-hander himself. But the credit must go to Jubin for his perseverance and change of game plan from the fourth game.

Woefully out of the match and down 0-3, the Haryana lad played a mesmerizing game—superbly working on the angles and catching Shetty on his somewhat weak forehand and often forcing him into errors. In fact, Shetty kept pushing Jubin away from the table and it worked well for him in the first three games. The match-point shot, a curving-in forehand exemplified Jubin’s fantastic play.

However, no one would have thought reversals for Shetty as he had a very good rhythm going right from the word go. Yet, Jubin was up to his opponent and played his forehand and backhand with equal felicity.

Receiving well, the Haryana southpaw took three sets to realize his folly. Timely advice from team mate Mohit Verma brought about the change as one could see his slowing down the game. Unable to cope with the slowness, Shetty faulted even on his reliable forehand shots and, cashing in on his mistakes, Jubin kept progressing.

Having accomplished the first task of restoring parity, he had an open mind going into the decider. Shetty had an early advantage but the Haryana lad nullified it quickly and kept himself well ahead of his rival. Shetty, however hard he tried, could not do much against a vigilant Jubin.

“He was attacking well and I needed to slow him down since I was able to receive him well,” said Jubin after the match. “I am happy I forced him into his forehand shots where he was fumbling a bit today.”

Earlier in the day, one witnessed yet another show of grit and courage as No. 8 seed Sushmit Sriram pulled out what was a fine upset against Amalraj. Though the former national champion was not seeded here—he had to play the qualifiers to get into the main draw—he was expected to get over the line against the Tamil Nadu boy. Sushmit, having sized up his rival and serving well, kept Amalraj on tenterhooks. It forced a visibly upset Amalraj into more errors and only helped the Tamil Nadu boys’ cause.

Sathiyan warned

Even No. 1 seed G. Sathiyan struggle to get past a disciplined West Bengal’s Sougata Sarkar 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6. The match, played at the show court, also saw some unpleasant exchanges between chair umpire and Sathiyan, who had to be yellow-carded for his misbehaviour. Luckily for Sathiyan, the umpire should have red-carded him for questioning his authority on calling a ‘let’.

Results:

Men’s Singles (Quarterfinals): G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Nitin Thiruvengadam 4-0 ( 11-3, 11-4, 11-4, 11-8), Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Soumyadeep Roy (PSPB) 4-0 (12-10, 11-6, 11-4, 11-9), Soumyajit Ghosh (PSPB) bt Jibin Kumar (Har) 11-7, 11-9, 14-12, 11-5), Raj Mondal (RBI) bt Abhishek Yadav (Raj) 4-1 (5-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-9, 11-8).  

Women Singles (Quarterfinals): Mouma Das (PSPB) bt Krittwika Sinha Roy (RBI) 4-2 (12-10, 11-2, 14-16, 11-6, 10-12, 14-12), K. Shamini (PSPB) bt Manika Batra (PSPB) 4-0 (11-5, 11-0, 11-3, 11-7), Poulami Ghatak (PSPB) bt Neha Aggarwal (Del) 4-2 (11-7, 9-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-6), Ankita Das (PSPB) bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe (Mah-A) 4-2 (11-9, 11-5, 11-8, 6-11, 10-12, 11-8).