Indore, February 15: Rubi Kaur of Madhya Pradesh struggled before overcoming her West Bengal opponent, Mondira Sur, to enter the Women 50+ semifinals of the 26th Masters National Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal here today.

Among the quarterfinals played in three women sections(40+, 50+ and 60+), the match between Rubi and Mondira proved to be the best for its intensity as well as determination as Rubi, opening well, was under pressure by the third game, trailing 1-2. She must have lost her hope even in the fourth as Mondira was well on her way to seal her fate.

However, the change of fortune for the MP women happened when she managed to deuce and from there take the next two points to level the score. And in the decider, she pressed home the advantage to sew it up without wasting time to win 3-2.

The hard-fought win should help her in the semifinal tomorrow when she takes on top-seed Mantu Murmu of West Bengal who had an easy outing against other MP women, Rashmi Soni, winning her quarterfinals 3-0.

In the other quarterfinals, Rajni Guptaof Punjab and Karabi Maitry of West Bengal beat their opponents in straight games.

The Women 40+ quarterfinals had turned out to be more or less one-sided with just the two matches getting extended by a game. For instance, Prasunna Parekh of Gujarat, after taking lead, dropped her second game against Mousumi Banerjee of West Bengal. But then, the Gujarat woman was quick enough to grab her chances in the next two to romp home winners.

Meenu Basak of West Bengal also dropped her first game to Karnataka’s Radhika Dorle but with her past reputation, the West Bengal woman finished of the match in quick time to win 3-1. The other two quarterfinal winners registered 3-0 triumphs.  

In the 60+ women singles, title-favourite Mangal Saraf from Maharashtra struggled a bit but managed to beat Ranjana S. Patki, also of Maharashtra, 3-1 to earn a semifinal meeting with Telangana’s Madhavi D who accounted for Maharashtra’s Shubha P. Ghate 3-0.

Pritikana Banerjee defeated Rajeshwari Mhetre of Maharashtra 3-1 to take on another Maharashtra player, Suhasini Bakre, in the second semifinals tomorrow. Suhasini beat statemate Mythili Sodhi 3-0.

RESULTS:

Women Singles 40+: Quarterfinals: Prasunna Parekh (Guj) bt Mousumi Bnerjee (WB) 11-13, 11-8, 11-6, 11-6, Shruti AK Joshi (Mah) bt Anjana P Rao (Kar) 11-7, 11-5, 11-9, Meenu Basak (WB) bt Radhika Dorle (Mar) 6-11, 11-1, 11-9, 11-4, Rani Chandrima Jain (RBI) bt Kuntali Bhattacharya (WB) 11-7, 11-2, 11-9.

Women Singles 50+: Quarterfinals: Mantu Murmu (WB) bt Rashmi Soni (MP) 11-8, 11-4, 11-6, Rabi Kaur (MP) bt Mondira Sur (WB) 11-6, 9-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-7, Rajni Gupta (Pun) bt Sukanya Isa (AP) 11-6, 13-11, 11-2, Karabi Maity (WB) bt Neelam Narula (Del) 11-6, 11-6, 11-2.

Women Singles 60+: Quarterfinals: Mangal Saraf (Mah) bt Ranjana S. Patki (Mah) 11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, Madhavi D (Telg) bt Shubha P Ghate (Mah) 11-9, 12-10, 11-5, Pritikana Banerjee (WB) bt Rajeshwari Mhetre (Mah) 5-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-9.