New Delhi, August 6: Top-seeded A. Sarath Kamal and Madhurika Patkar sounded a grim warning to fellow players as they asserted their supremacy to enter the men and women singles semi-finals, respectively, in the LPS Bossard 47th All India Inter-Institutional Championships at the Table Tennis Foundation hall here today.

In fact, credit must go to seventh seed Takeme Sarkar, whose enterprising display of strokes which led to the downfall of reigning champion and second seed Sutirtha Mukherjee, who began the procession. Pooja Sahasrabuddhe followed suit by sending Manika Batra, though seeded sixth, home in a comeback struggle.

Sharath, who disposed of Amalraj in the round of 16, was completely in control against Soumyajit Ghosh in the quarterfinal as is evident from the scores, especially in the fourth game which he won without conceding a point. Except for a few mistakes he committed in the third, Sharath had Ghosh on a tight leash and completed the job to win 4-1.

“Full credits to Sharath. When he plays the way he did today, hitting hard, the least I could do was to go for cover. I tried my best, but he was too good,” admitted Gosh.

Indeed, Sharath was. Even Amalraj, who became his victim in the pre-quarters, would vouch for it. But Sharath was modest to say that everything clicked for him. “I went all out and hard. Sometimes it pays off, sometime it doesn’t,” said the national champion.

Second, third and fourth seeds—Sathiyan, Arjun Ghosh and Harmeet Desai—too kept their date with destiny but Arjun struggled against floater Sougata Sarkar of LIC. The latter managed to take the second and third to lead 2-1 at one point before Arjun did what was expected of him. His win in the fourth, 13-11, really helped him gain self-confidence which he carried through to notch 4-2 triumph. Harmeet and Sathiyan won against left-handers Sanil Shetty and Abhishek Yadav 4-0, respectively.

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

Stroking well with clever use of flanks, the Northeast Frontier Railways player was in a punishing mood right from the start and it reflected in her game. On the other hand, Suthirtha was unable to return as she made 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.

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 deuce after deuce and Manika saving four game points. Pooja won on her fifth game point to go all out in the next and shut out Manika.

Eighths seed Archana put up a brave front against Madhurika and had even managed to take two games off her after being down 0-3. But that was all she should do under tremendous pressure. For another Siliguri girl Ankita Das, it was a profitable day as she beat Poulami Ghatak 4-1 to earn a match-up with Madhurika tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the mixed doubles title went the way of PSPB pair Sail Shetty and Reethi Rishya, who beat RBI’s Raj Mondal and Akula Sreeja 3-1.

Results:

Men Singles: (QF): A. Sharath Kamal (PSPB) bt Soumyajit Ghosh (PSPB) 11-4, 12-10, 7-11, 11-0, 11-9, Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Sanil Shetty (PSPB) 11-5, 11-9, 11-5, 11-2, Arjun Ghosh (AAI) bt Sougata Sarkar (LIC) 13-11, 6-11, 9-11, 13-11, 12-10, 11-9, G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Abhishek Yadav (PSPB) 11-4, 11-3, 11-4, 11-5.

PQF: A.Sharath Kamal bt A. Amalraj (PSPB) 4-2, Soumyajit Ghosh bt Sudhanshu Grover (PSPB) 4-2, Sanil Shetty bt Raj Mondal (RBI) 4-2, Harmeet Desai bt Ravindra Kotiyan (RSPB) 4-0, Arjun Ghosh bt Devesh Karia (CRSB) 4-3, Sougata Sarkar bt Anirban Nandi (RSPB) 4-1Abhishek Yadav bt Subhajit Saha (PSPB) 4-1, G. Sathiyan bt Sourav Saha (PSPB) 4-2.

Women Singles: (QF): Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) bt Archana Kamath (PSPB) 11-3, 11-7,16-14, 9-11, 9-11, 11-5, Ankita Das (SPPB) bt Poulami Ghatak (PSPB) 11-6, 11-7, 12-14, 11-8, 11-8, Pooja Sahasrabuddhe (PSPB) bt Manika Batra (PSPB) 5-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 16-14, 11-8, Take Sarkar (RSPB) bt Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) 5-11, 12-10, 14-12, 11-4, 6-11, 11-5).

PQF: Madhurika Patkar bt Manushree Patil (AAI) 4-0, Archana Kamath bt Reeth Rishya (PSPB) 4-2, Poulami Ghatak bt Anindita Chakraborty (RSPB) 4-3, Ankita Das bt Akula Sreeja (RBI) 4-2, Pooja Sahasrabuddhe bt Shailu Noorbasha (AAI) 4-0, Manika Batra bt Mousumi Paul (PSPB) 4-3, Takeme Sarkar bt Priyadarshini Das (RBI) 4-0, Sutirtha Mukherjee bt Krittwika Sinha Roy (PSPB) 4-2.

Mixed Doubles (Final): Sanil Shetty/Reeth Rishya (PSPB) bt Raj Mondal/Akula Sreeja (RBI) 11-5, 11-5, 9-11, 11-5.