Manesar (Haryana), February 1: Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) men entered the team semifinals when they blanked out Rajasthan 3-0 in the 78th 11Even Sports Senior Nationals at the Manesar Sports Club here today.

They will now take on Gujarat who beat Tamil Nadu 3-1 in the first semifinal while it will be Haryana versus West Bengal in the second.

As anticipated, PSPB’s Sanil Shetty and G. Sathiyan rolled over their opponents Sudhanshu Grover and Pankaj Kumar, respectively, with greater authority but Harmeet Desai had a bad opening against Subham Ojha. The PSPB paddler, however, got his endgame right to see the team through. When Arjun Ghosh failed against Ravindra Kotiyan of Maharashtra in the first rubber, West Bengal’s Anirban Nandi defeated Siddhesh Pande 3-1 and Sougata Sarkar downed Sanish Ambekar 3-1 to repair the early damage. Arjun returned firing on all cylinders in his reverse singles and beat Siddhesh in straight games for the team score of 3-1.

Tamil Nadu players, after having played a marathon against Karnataka in the quarterfinals, were visibly tired and wilted under the onslaught of Devesh Karia and Harsh Sachanandani despite Jignesh Jaiswal losing their opening rubber to the defensive Abhishek Ravichandran 1-3. Devesh returned for the reverse singles and sealed the fate of Tamil Nadu to beat Abhishek in straight games again.

But the match of the day was, undoubtedly, played between hosts and second-seeded Haryana and AAI which the former won 3-2. With Soumyajit in their ranks, Haryana was expected to go through but Sarthak Gandhi’s consistency was unexpected surprise for one and all. After Soumyajit provided a good start, beating Sushmit Sriram in straight games, Jubin Kumar lost to Sarthak tamely.

But Sourav Saha brought Haryana back on the rails with a hard-fought win in spite of Anirban Ghosh taking the third rubber down to the wire with Soumyajit slated to play his reverse singles. Sarthak, however, had different ideas and shocked Haryana’s new entrant fair and square after Soumyajit led 2-0. Sarthak extended him first in the third game to win it 14-12. That was the turning point. Then he went on to take next two games to breath fresh life for AAI. Nevertheless, Jubin fought back nicely to pull it back for the hosts when Sushmit, leading 2-1, squandered their chance.

ERRING IN TEAM PLANS

Top two institutions, PSPB and Airports Authority of India (AAI), majorly erred in their strategies and escaped by the skin of their teeth to live another day while both women teams of Maharashtra A and West Bengal cakewalked into the semifinals with 3-0 verdicts against their opponents.

In the semifinals to be played tomorrow, PSPB will take on Maharashtra A and AAI will meet West Bengal.

PSPB preferred the team of Madhurika Patkar, Manika Batra and Reeth Rishya, benching veteran Mouma Das and an in-form Mousumi Paul from their line-up against North Bengal. And believe it, PSPB almost paid for this hara-kiri when Manika and Reeth lost their second and third singles to Sagarika Mukherjee and Sukanya Bose—Manika in straight games and Reeth 1-3.  

These wins by North Bengal had unnerved them considerably until Madhurika restored parity, disposing of Sagarika 11-7, 11-6, 11-7. But Manika being susceptible these days, her match against Takeme Sarkar was crucial. The Rio Olympian struggled yet again as she did in her first game but Takeme failed to bring out her best under the circumstances. Manika, despite leading 2-0, lost her third game in the deciding rubber and just managed to pull it off for PSPB.

AAI was even worse in their plan against MP and choosing Ayhika Mukherjee as their third best player while opting for Frenaz Chipia as second best. It could have backfired if only Saswati Ghosh had pressed home the advantage provided by teammate Anusha Kutumbale, who won both her singles—she first accounted for Frenaz and then Archana, who had provided AAI a 1-0 start.

There was a definite pressure in the AAI camp when Anusha beat Archana to bring MP on par at 2-2 providing an opening. But an error-prone Saswati failed to utilize the golden opportunity and let Frenaz and AAI off the hook. The AAI girl won 3-0.

Maharashtra, on the other hand, had their quarterfinal match sewn up without a hiccup as Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Charvi Kawle and Shruti Amrute taking care of their interests. Of course, Chavi was stretched by Amrutha Pushpak and this was one match that could have gone either way. In the end Chavi used the opportunities well to convert some astonishing winners.

West Bengal, led by Suthirtha Mukherjee and Railways veteran Anindita Chakraborty went 2-0 up against Karnatka as Kushi Viswanath and Swetha Kumaravel were taken to cleaners. But an unexpected resistance came from Spoorthy Venkatesh who led 2-1 only to squander the chance. Moumita Datta, who was not playing her best and netted quite frequently, scrapped through after Spoorthy had made it 9-all in the decider.   

Results:

Men Quarterfinals: PSPB bt Rajasthan 3-0 (Sanil Shetty bt Sudhanshu Grover 11-8, 11-7, 11-5, G.Sathiyan bt Pankan Kumar 11-9, 11-5, 11-8, Harmeet Desai bt Subham Ojab 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7), Gujarat bt Tamil Nadu 3-1 (Jignesh Jaiswal lost to Abhishek Ravichandran 3-11, 11-5, 6-11, 3-11, Devesh Karia bt Subash Mani 13-11, 11-4, 10-12, 11-8, Harsh Sachanandani bt Leimapokpam 11-8, 11-3, 11-6, Devesh Karia bt Abhishek R 11-2, 11-9, 11-5), West Bengal bt Maharashtra A 3-1 (Arjun Ghosh lost to Ravindra Kotiyan 11-9, 10-12, 11-5, 14-16, 7-11, Anirban Nandi bt Siddhesh Pande 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8, Sougata Sarkar bt Sanish Ambekar 11-6, 11-4, 11-5, Arjun bt Siddhesh 11-5, 11-9, 11-9), Haryana bt AAI 3-2 (Soumyajit Ghosh bt Sushmit Sriram 11-6, 11-6, 11-6, Jubin Kumar lost to Sarthak Gandhi 7-11, 8-11, 8-11, Sourav Saha bt Anirban Ghosh 7-11, 11-5, 15-13, 7-11, 11-6, Soumyajit lost to Sarthak 11-9, 11-7, 12-14, 8-11, 10-12, Jubin bt Sushmit 11-8, 7-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8).

PQF: PSPB bt UP 3-0, Rajasthan bt Delhi 3-0, Tamil Nadu bt Karnataka 3-2, Gujarat bt Chhattisgarh 3-1, Maharashtra A bt North Bengal 3-0, West Bengal bt Telangana 3-1, AAI bt Maharashtra B 3-0, Haryana bt Pondicherry 3-0.

Women Quarterfinals: PSPB bt North Bengal 3-2 (Madhurika Patkar bt Takeme Sarkar 11-9, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5, Manika Batra lost to Sagarika Mukherjee 9-11, 5-11, 7-11, Reeth Rishya lost to Sukanya Bose 6-11, 12-10, 9-11, 5-11, Madhurika bt Sagarika 11-7, 11-6, 11-7, Manika bt Takeme 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9),  Maharashtra A bt Tamil Nadu 3-0 (Pooja Sahasrabuddhe bt Vidya Narasimhan 11-6, 11-6, 11-8, Charvi Kawle bt Amrutha Pushpak 11-12, 10-12, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7, Shruti Amrute bt Selenadeepthi Selvakumar 8-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-6), AAI bt MP 3-2 (Archana Kamath bt Saswati Ghosh 12-10, 7-11, 11-7, 11-2, Frenaz Chipia lost to Anusha Kutumbale 8-11, 7-11, 10-12, Ayhika Mukherjee bt Himani Chaturvedi 11-8, 11-5, 11-4, Archana lost to Anusha 9-11, 7-11, 8-11, Frenaz bt Saswati 11-9, 11-8, 13-11), West Bengal bt Karanataka 3-0 (Suthirtha Mukherjee bt Kushi Viswanath 11-7, 13-11, 11-1, Anindita Chakraborty bt Swetha Kumaravel 11-8, 11-5, 11-7, Moumita Datta bt Spoorthi Venkatesh 11-9, 8-11, 7-11, 13-10, 11-9).  

PQF: PSPb bt Maharashtra B 3-0, North Bengal bt Assam 3-0, Maharashtra A bt Rajasthan 3-2, Tamil Nadu bt Gujarat 3-0, AAI bt Odisha 3-0, Madhya Pradesh bt Haryana 3-1, Karnataka bt Delhi 3-2, West Bengal bt Telangana 3-0.