Indore, March 10: If the top-seeded Jeet Chandra had to bring out his last ounce of energy to outwit Chinmaya Somaiya, it was a big struggle for defending champion SFR Snehit, right from the word go, in the Youth Boys quarterfinals of the UTT 82nd Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships, at the Abhay Prashal here today.

The first seed survived to enter the semi-finals, beating Somaiya 4-3, but Snehit bit the dust as seventh-seeded Payas Jain accounted for him 4-2. Fifth-seed Raegan Albuquerque from Maharashtra upset fourth-seed Manush Shah and unseeded Anukram Jain downed Wesley Do Rosario of Haryana to complete the semi-final line-ups.

Jeet had a sizable 3-1 lead but lost steam in between to let the Maharashtra rival claw his way back into the match. Chinmaya, showing considerable improvement, posed a lot of problems, but the experienced Jeet kept his cool in the final game to go through. An error-prone Snehit, on the other hand, was 0-3 down against the Delhi boy. Snehit did well to take two back-to-back games. Yet, a determined Payas didn’t give him another chance, his backhand coming off nicely throughout.

In the first semi-final, Varun Shankar of Telangana downed Riswav Dey from Bengal in straight games. Fourth-seeded Payas won his quarter-final match, defeating Soumyadeep Sarkar, also from Bengal, 4-0. In the other two semi-finals, second-seed Yashansh Malik from Delhi beat Agniv Bhaskar Gohain of Assam 4-1, while Maharashtra’s Deepit Patil showed his prowess and patience to overcome the defensive H. Jeho 4-3, after saving a couple of match-points.

Several seeds in the Junior Boys category fell by the wayside. Prominent among them was the top-seed, Viswa Deenadayalan from Tamil Nadu. He went down to unseeded Arush Dutta of Delhi 1-3 in the Round of 32. Other minor seeds that followed Vishwa included fifth, sixth, and eighth-seeded Hrishikesh Malhotra, Preyesh Raj Suresh, and Jayabrata Bhattacharjee.

In the Junior Boys, fourth-seed Payas Jain seems to have an easy passage at least until the semi-finals, after he laboured his way into the pre-quarterfinals. His win against Sarth Mishra from UP came at the crucial time when he led 10-9 in the last game. His service winner down the line sealed his UP-rival’s fate.  Delhi’s Yashansh Malik, seeded No. 2, defeated another UP player, Divyansh Srivastava, 3-1. He will take on Assam’s Agniv Bhaskar Gohain, a promising player in the making.  

Fortunately, only three seeds fell in the Youth Boys singles before the pre-quarterfinals. Third-seed Parth Virmani lost in Round 32 to Ashwin Subramanian, Shreeyans Goel, the silver medallist at Jammu in 2019, in the third round, and sixth-seed Deepit Patil, also in the third round. But his conqueror, Wesley Do Rosario from Haryana, came back twice in the match and finally won the decider 12-10.

Results:

Youth Boys: Quarterfinals: Jeet Chandra (Har) bt Chinmaya Somaiya (Mah) 11-5, 5-11, 11-9, 11-6, 4-11, 7-11, 11-8, Raegan Albuquerque (Mah) bt Manush Shah (Guj) 5-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-9, 11-1, 11-5, Anukram Jain (RSPB) bt Wesley Do Rosario (Har) 13-11, 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-8, Payas Jain (Del) bt SFR Snehit (Telg) 11-7, 11-9, 11-6, 7-11, 6-11, 11-9.

Pre-quarterfinals: Jeet Chandra bt K. Yengkhom (Man) 11-9, 12-10, 11-3, 11-4, Chinmaya Somaiya bt Shreyaans Goal (Del) 22-6, 22-9, 20-23, 24-22, 22-5, Raegan Albuquerque bt Nikhil Kumar (Pun) 11-5, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8,3, 11-4, Manush Shah bt Vansh Singhal (Har) 11-4, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7, Anukram Jain bt Ashwin Subramanian (Mah) 11-4, 14-12, 11-9, 7-11, 11-6, Wesley Do Rosario bt Deepit Patil (Mah) 7-11, 9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5, Payas Jain bt H. Jeho 7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 12-10, 13-11, SFR Snehit bt Agniv Bhaskar Gohain (Asm) 11-3, 11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10.

Junior Boys: Quarterfinals: Varun Shankar (Telg) bt Riswav Dey (Ben) 11-6, 11-4, 11-8, 11-7, Payas Jain (Del) bt Soumyadeep Sarkar (Ben) 11-6, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7, Deepit Patil (Mah) H.Jeho (Miz) 11-5, 7-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 15-13, Yashansh Malik (Del) bt Agniv Bhaskar Gohain (Asm) 11-4, 7-11, 11-6, 11-7, 12-10.

Pre-quarterfinals: Riswa Dey bt Arush Dutt (Del) 15-17, 11-4, 11-7, 4-11, 11-6, Varun Shankar bt Jash Modi (Mah) 11-2, 11-9, 11-8, Soumyadeep Sarkar bt Samyak Kashyap (Kar) 11-8, 11-9, 12-10, Payas Jain bt Sarth Mishra (TTFI) 8-11, 12-10, 4-11, 11-9, 11-9, H. jeho bt Aadarsh Om Chetri (Del) 8-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-9, 11-8, Deepit Patil bt Preyesh Raj Suresh (TNTTA) 11-2, 11-8 11-7, Agniv Bhaskar Gohain bt Chtrax Bhatt (Guj) 11-7, 10-12, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, Yashansh Mali bt Divyansh Srivastava (UP) 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8..