Shillong, April 24: Old warhorse and five-time National champion Mouma Das proved age is just a number. Picking up a racquet after a three-year hiatus, the 38-year-old defeated teenager and second-seeded Diya Chitale 4-3 in the women’s singles and entered the quarterfinals of the 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships at the SAI Indoor Stadium here today.

If Mouma’s courageous act brought smiles to the faces of her supporters, the feeling was the opposite when top-seed Manika Batra made a premature exit in the pre-quarterfinals. RBI’s Ayhika Mukherjee made most of the chances that came her way to outsmart her famed opponent. Apart from Manika and Diya, eighth-seed Prapti Sen also failed to move up. Earlier, promising Archana Kamath lost to a tenacious Yashini Sivashankar of Tamil Nadu, losing 3-4 in the round of 32. 

The day also saw some men’s seeds also fall by the wayside. Prominent among them included fourth-seed Harmeet Desai, eighth-seed SFR Snehit, 10th seed Sudhanshu Grover, 11th seed Ronit Bhanja, 12th seed Anthony Amalraj and 15th seed Deepit Patil.

Trailing 0-3, Mouma nicely warmed up to take the last four games. However, the clincher was the fourth game which she won after deuce. This win provided her with the impetus to fight back and close out the 18-year-old. But Diya, despite being in a good position in the fourth, became error-prone at crucial junctures of the game. Mouma, the mother of a two-year-old son, seized those little moments and surged ahead.

Manika, on the other hand, was down 1-2. She came back strongly to level the score 2-2 and then 3-3. In the decider, the RBI woman reeled off winners after winners and pushed the top seed to the brink. Third-seed Reeth Rishya survived a scare from Sutirtha Mukherjee before winning 4-3. Anusha Kutambale from MP and Takeme Sarkar from RSPB, both unseeded, also entered the quarterfinal fray.

Manush Shah staved off Amalraj's threat to win the last two games of the men's singles, and Anirban Ghosh of RSPB thwarted Yashansh Malik of Delhi to win 4-3. But Soumyajit Ghosh shocked Harmeet Desai 4-1 in a one-sided pre-quarters. However, the top two seeds, Sharath and Sathiyan, moved into the quarters with ease. Soham Bhattacharya of Kerala squandered the 3-0 advantage and wilted to the guiles of veteran Sourav Saha of Haryana, the latter advancing with a 4-3 verdict.

Results:

Men’s Singles (PQF): A. Sharath Kamal (PSPB) bt KJ Akash (Kar) 11-5, 11-4, 11-8, 11-9, Sourav Saha (Har) bt Soham Bhattacharya (Ker) 13-15, 12-14, 3-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8, 11-4, Manush Shah (Guj) bt Anthony Amalraj (PSPB) 11-9, 11-13, 11-8, 7-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-4, Soumyajit Ghosoh (Har) bt Harmeet Desai (PSPB) 11-9, 11-6, 6-11, 11-4, 13-11, Sanil Shetty (PSPB) bt Jeet Chandra (Har) 11-3, 7-11, 12-10, 12-10, 12-10, Anirban Ghosh (RSPB) bt Yashansh Malik (Del) 8-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 6-11, 13-11, 11-5, Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt Sudhanshu Grover (Del) 6-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6, G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Deepit Patil (Mah) 11-9, 11-6, 11-6, 13-11.

Round-32: Sharath Kamal bt Abhishek Yadav (UP) 4-1, KJ Aakash bt Sarth Mishra (UP) 4-3, Soham Bhattacharya bt Shubh Goel (Del) 4-0, Sourav Saha bt SFR Snehit (Telg) 4-0, Manush Shah bt Akash Pal (RSPB) 4-0, A. Amalraj bt Sougata Sarkar (LIC) 4-0, Soumyajit Ghosh bt Nitin Thiruvengadam (BBSCB) 4-0, Harmeet Desai bt Anukram Jain (RSPB) 4-0, Sanil Shetty bt Abhimanyu Mitra (IA&AD) 4-3, Jeet Chandra bt Vansh Singhal (Har) 4-0, Yashansh Malik bt Ronit Bhanja (Ben) 4-2, Anirban Ghosh bt Raj Mondal (RBI) 4-1, Manav Thakkar bt Sushmit Sriram (TNTTA) 4-0, Sudhanshu Grover bt Wesley Do Rosario (Har) 4-1, Deepit Patil bt Jbin Kumar (Har) 4-0, G. Sathiyan bt Aadarsh Oom Chhetri (Del) 4-0.

Women’s Singles (PQF):  Ayhika Mukherjee (RBI) bt Manika Batra (PSPB) 7-11, 11-8, 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-13, 11-3, Moumita Dutta (Ben) bt Yashaswini Ghorpade (Kar) 16-14, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8, Swastika Ghosh (Mah) bt Krittwika Sinha Roy (PSPB) 11-5, 11-7, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6, Sreeja Akula (RBI) bt Sagarika Mukherjee (RSPB) 11-7, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5, 12-10, Reeth Rishya (PSPB) bt Sutirtha Mukherjee (RSPB) 11-4, 9-11, 10-12, 11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 11-9, Takeme Sarkar (RSPB) bt Yashini Sivashankar (TNTTA) 11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4, 11-2, Anusha Kutumbale (MP) bt Poymantee Baisya (Ben) 11-4, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, Mouma Das (PSPB) bt Diya Chitale (Mah) 10-12, 8-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-9, 11-8, 11-7.

Round-32:Manika Batra bt Trisha Gogoi (Asm) 4-0, Ayhika Mukherjee bt Harshavardhini C (TNTTA) 4-1, Yashaswini Ghorpade bt Chipia Frenaz (Guj) 4-0, Moumita Dutta bt Prapti Sen (RSPB) 4-3, Swastika Ghosh bt Ankita Das (Ben) 4-1, Krittwika Sinha Roy bt Kaushani Nath (Ben) 4-1, Sagarika Mukherjee bt Varuni Jaiswal (Telg) 4-0, Sreeja Akula bt Risha Mirchanadani (Mah) 4-1, Reeth Rishya bt Sataporni De (Ben) 4-0, Sutirtha Mukherjee bt Munmun Kundu (Ben) 4-0, Yashini Sivashankar bt Archana Kamath (PSPB) 4-3, Takeme Sarkar bt Nithyashree Mani (TTTA) 4-2, Anusha Kutumbale bt Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) 4-3, Ponmantee Baisya bt Amrutha Pushpak (TNTTA) 4-1, Mouma Das bt Shruti Amrute (RSPB) 4-1, Diya Chitale bt Kowshika V (TNTTA) 4-3.