Bhavnagar, November 10: Among the top eight men seeds, third-seeded Sudhanshu Grover was denied entry into the men singles quarterfinals when he went down to Ronit Bhanja 2-4 in the UTT National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the SAG Sports Complex here today.

This followed the exit of second-seed Manush and fourth-seed Siddesh Pande yesterday, even as fifth seed Archana Kamath joined the game as she bowed out of the women singles without a fight when Anusha Kutumbale of Madhya Pradesh thrashed her 4-0.

The West Bengal paddler played brilliantly but the PSPB player was found wanting as he not only failed to keep the ball on table but also gave away quite a few negative points to his opponent. Nevertheless, Ronit hit a nice rhythm and had good counters to whatever was sent down by Sudhanshu. The match also witnessed good rallies with several winners coming Ronit’s way.

But other seeded players defied the few upsets in both sections and marched into the quarterfinals, like fifth-seeded Jeet Chandra and Soumyajit Ghosh, both from Haryana, who won in contrasting styles. It was, more or less, an easy outing for Ghosh who defeated his former PSPB mate Subhajit Saha 4-1, while Jeet, who took an extra game to outlast LIC’s Sougata Sarkar, struggled. But the interesting match-up was between old warhorse Anirban Nandi of Railways and promising youngster Abimanyu Mitra of West Bengal. In the match, Railways paddler defeated his rival 4-1 to secure his place in the quarters.  Equally difficult it was for sixth-seed Sushmit Srriram who had to play out of his skin to beat Sourav Saha of Haryana 4-2 while Nitin Thiruvengadam of BBSCB made most of the negative points from Ravindra Kotiyan of Railways to register his triumph 4-3.

Fifth-seeded Archana Kamath, running a low form, yet again became a victim in the pre-quarterfinal when Anusha Kutumbale beat her in straight games. Archana, who is struggling of late, could not cope with the mental pressure for a few tournaments now and succumbed. However, there was no further damage as the remaining six seeds advanced to the quarterfinals.

Yet, it was not an easy passage for former national champion Madhurika Patkar who was almost taken the full distance by Railways Kaushani Nath. It was a real hard-fought win for sixth-seeded Prapti Sen against experienced Pooja Sahasrabudhe.

Pooja, trailing 0-2 did well to level the score but it was the West Bengal girl who had the last laugh winning the last three games to progress. Second-seed Ayhika Mukherjee should thank her stars for being let off by the inexperienced young Tamil Nadu paddler, Kowshika Venkatesan, who lost the decider after deuce.

All the quarterfinals are slated for later today and with technical fault in electricity supply which began on Day 2 lingering into the fourth day, the matches could go on beyond the scheduled hours.

Results:

Men: Pre-quarterfinals: Sanil Shetty bt Krianjoy Pushilal (WB) 12-10, 11-4, 11-5, 11-6; Jeet Chandra bt Sougata Sarkar (LIC) 11-6, 5-11, 12-10, 11-9, 8-11, 16-14; Birdie Boro (PSPB) bt Raegan Albuquerque (Mah) 11-7, 11-5, 11-8, 13-11; Nitin Thiruvengadam bt RAvindra Kotiyan (Rlys) 11-4, 4-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-6; Ronit Bhanja bt Sudhanshu Grover (PSPB) 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4, 11-9; Sushmit Sriram bt Sourav Saha (Har) 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7; Soumyajit Ghosh bt Subhajit Saha (PSPB) 11-3, 11-2, 11-3, 7-11, 11-8; Anirban Nandi bt Abhimanyu Mitra (WB) 7-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8, 11-8.

Women: Pre-quarterfinals: Sutirtha Mukherjee bt Anikita Das (PSPB) 11-5, 11-6, 11-3, 11-9; Sagarika Mukherjee bt Kowshika Venkatesan (TN) 6-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 12-10; Anusha Kutumbale bt Archana Kamath (PSPB) 11-6, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8; Sreeja Akula bt Moumita Dutta (Rlys) 11-6, 6-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-6; Madhurika Patkar bt Kaushani Nath (Rlys) 11-6, 9-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-7, 11-5; Prapti Sen bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe (PSPB) 11-8, 11-8, 3-11, 6-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9; Reeth Rishya bt Naina (Telg) 11-7, 9-11, 12-10, 8-11, 16-14, 11-5; Ayhika Mukherjee bt Divya Deshpande (PSPB) 11-2, 11-7, 11-4, 11-8.