![\"National](\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/National-Ranking-Table-Tennis-Championships-Oct-15.jpg\")
Rajkot: Consistency is a problem which PSPB’s Harmeet Desai has not been able to surmount despite being on the circuit for a long time. The Gujarat paddler, who recaptured the national ranking title at Indore—his last title win came at Guwahati in the previous season—went down 3-4 to West Bengal’s Arjun Ghosh in the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of 11Even Sports National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here today.<\/p>\n
Harmeet lost a 3-1 cushion, his form and rhythm as Arjun Ghosh raised the level of his game a notch higher to win the match 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9 and march into the quarters. No doubt, credit should go to the West Bengal youngster who showed a lot of verve and kept prodding himself despite being down and out.<\/p>\n
He upped the ante in the fifth game, winning it by minimal points and gradually kept himself floating to take the issue to the decider. In the decider, it seemed a touch-and-go affair as the two matched each other with great strokes, using the flanks well. A few blunders, especially when he netted the ball as Arjun was serving for the match and a service error just before that, cost Harmeet dear.<\/p>\n
But Manav Thakkar and Devesh Karia fought well to keep the hosts’ flag high when the former outlasted AAI’s Sarthak Gandhi 4-2 and Karia rolled over PSPB’s Sourav Saha 4-1 to advance to the quarterfinals. Manav played a controlled and yet aggressive game despite Sarthak giving him a good fight.<\/p>\n
In other matches, top seed G. Sathiyan beat Soumyadeep Roy 4-0, AAI’s Vivek Bhargava downed Rohit Chakraborth of LIC 4-1 and another AAI boy Ronit Bhanja outplayed PSPB’s Birdie Boro to win 4-2. For Santil Shetty, it was a cakewalk as he beat Nitin Thuruvengadam of Canara Bank 4-1 and Jubin Kumar repeated the score against Telangana’s Aman Balgu.<\/p>\n
VARUNI SLAYS SHAMINI<\/p>\n
Earlier, Varuni Jaiswal of Telangana made another giant killing when she humbled former national champion K. Shamini with a 4-3 verdict in women’s singles pre-quarterfinals. Down 0-5 and then 3-6 in the decider, Varuni never lost hope against a seasoned Shamini who is normally good in end games.<\/p>\n
Varuni narrowed down the lead with the execution of her backhand drives and nice placements to go 7-6 up and then inched towards writing history. At 10-8 she missed a match point but recovered soon, when Shamini served, to shut her rival out at 10-9 as the 15-year-old eventually wrapped it up 11-9, 6-11, 11-6,8-11, 9-11,11-6, 11-9.<\/p>\n
In other pre-quarters, fourth-seeded Manika beat Divya Deshpande 4-2, Ankita Das beat Nikhat Banu 4-0, Madhurika Patkar won 4-0 against Shruti Amrute, but in another upset Amrutha Pushpak of Tamil Nadu downed third seed Pooja Sahasrabudde 11-9, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-9. In a clash of veterans, Mouma Das defeated Poulomi Ghatak 4-3, after the latter led 3-2. Mouma had to win the last two games to stay in contention.<\/p>\n
UNLUCKY KRITTWIKA<\/p>\n
PSPB’s Krittwika Sinha Roy was unlucky to bow out in the pre-quarters as the change of bat did her in when she was leading 2-1. The damaged rubber of her bat had to be changed midway through and it came as a blessing in disguise to her opponent Mousumi Paul who went on to lead 3-2. Yet it was really brave of her to level and in the decider lost a match point as Mousumi won 6-11, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6, 11-3, 10-12, 12-10.<\/p>\n
A visibly upset Krittwika said: “I couldn’t get the ply of my choice (in India) though I have the rubbers. If only I had the right ply, I would have carried an additional bat which I normally do. The borrowed bat didn’t suit my style of play.”<\/p>\n
All the quarterfinals are slated for later tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rajkot: Consistency is a problem which PSPB’s Harmeet Desai has not been able to surmount despite being on the circuit for a long time. The Gujarat paddler, who recaptured the national ranking title at Indore—his last title win came at Guwahati in the previous season—went down 3-4 to West Bengal’s Arjun Ghosh in the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of 11Even Sports National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Veer Savarkar Municipal Corporation Stadium here today.<\/p>\n
Harmeet lost a 3-1 cushion, his form and rhythm as Arjun Ghosh raised the level of his game a notch higher to win the match 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9 and march into the quarters. No doubt, credit should go to the West Bengal youngster who showed a lot of verve and kept prodding himself despite being down and out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[18417,10105,5251,466,12913,18398],"class_list":["post-29406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-table-tennis-table-tennis","tag-11even-sports-national-ranking-table-tennis-championships","tag-arjun-ghosh","tag-harmeet-desai","tag-indian-sports-news","tag-table-tennis-news","tag-veer-savarkar-municipal-corporation-stadium"],"yoast_head":"\n