Takeme Sarkar of the Railways sent reigning singles champion and second-seeded Suthirtha packing to enter the semifinals of the LPS Bossard 47th All India Inter-Institutional Championships at the Table Tennis Foundation hall here today.

For the girl from Siliguri, it was the major victory and the first semifinal entry in a tournament of this size. She had, however, made it to the last-four stages of the national ranking championships at Indore during the Central Zone in June this year.

Stroking well with the good use of flanks, the Northeast Frontier Railways players was in a different mood right from the start and it reflected in her game. On the other hand, Suthirtha was unable to return and making far too many errors which made things rather easy for Takeme. Suthirtha did comeback in the fifth game, but despite being down in the sixth, Takeme sealed the fate of Suthirtha. The Railways girl next faces third seed Pooja in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Pooja accounted for sixth seed Manika Batra in a thrilling comeback quarterfinal. Manika led 2-0 but Pooja launched well from the third to take the next four, including the fifth which saw several deuces and four game points. Pooja won on her fifth game point to go all out in the next and shut out Manika.