Rajkot, October 15: Varuni Jaiswal of Telangana has come a long way from being a junior girl to being a giant slayer. She is never afraid of taking on bigger or older opponents and is a past master with bagful of tricks.

The gusty performer has a number of victims in her long list which include Archana Kamath, Shruti Amruti and Priyanka Pareek, to name a few. And today, in the women’s pre-quarterfinals of the ongoing 11Even Sports National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here, Varuni added another big name when she felled former national champion K. Shamini with a 4-3 verdict.

Temperamentally cool and disciplined to the core, the Hyderabad girl did what she comes easy to her. Down 0-5 and then 3-6 in the decider, Varuni never lost hope against a seasoned Shamini who is normally good in end games. But today was different.

Varuni narrowed down the led with excellent execution of her backhand drives and nice placements to go 7-6 up and inching towards writing history. At 10-8 she missed a match point but recovered soon with Shamini serving to shut her rival out at 10-9.

But before that Shamini led 3-2 and it meant Varuni had to take the last two games which she did in style even as Shamini was losing steam. Cashing in on the opportunity presented, Varuni won 11-6 to level and then go all out in the decider despite being in a spot of bother. And that was some character and coming as it did from a 15-year-old was even more laudable as she eventually wrapped it up 11-9, 6-11, 11-6,8-11, 9-11,11-6, 11-9.

The Hyderabadi will now run into second-seeded Suthirtha Mukherjee of West Bengal who accounted for AAI’s C Harsha Vardhhini 4-1.

UNLUCKY KRITTWIKA

PSPB’s Krittwika Sinha Roy was unlucky to bow out in the pre-quarters as the change of bat did her in despite leading 2-1. The damaged rubber of her bat had to be changed midway through and it came as a blessing in disguise to her opponent Mousumi Paul who went on to lead 3-2. Yet it was really brave of her to level and in the decider lost a match point as Mousumi won 6-11, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6, 11-3, 10-12, 12-10.

A visibly upset Krittwika said: “I couldn’t get a ply of my choice (in India) though I have the rubbers. If only I had the right ply, I would have carried an additional bat which I normally do. The borrowed bat didn’t suit my style of play.”

In other pre-quarters, fourth-seeded Manika beat Divya Deshpande 4-2, Ankita Das beat Nikhat Banu 4-0, Madhurika Patkar won 4-0 against Shruti Amrute, but in another upset Amrutha Pushpak of Tamil Nadu downed third seed Pooja Sahasrabudde 11-9, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-9. In a clash of veterans, Mouma Das defeated Poulomi Ghatak 4-3, after the latter led 3-2. Mouma had to win the last two games to stay in contention.