Thaindian News

Lucknow, Jan 24 (IANS) The expected teams, including holders Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) reached the quarterfinals of the Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championship at the SAI sub-centre here Tuesday.

PSPB along with West Bengal, North Bengal, Maharashtra A, Tamil Nadu and Airport Authority of India (AAI), made it to the last eight in the men’s and women’s category.

Gujarat’s women also qualified for the quarterfinals. The way they went after Delhi shows their determination as well as the dipping form of Delhi, who lost 0-3 with their star player Manika Batra joining the PSPB outfit.

Delhi’s Sanya Sehgal put up a fight against Gujarat’s Frenaz Chipia before losing 10-12, 11-13, 9-11. Nikita Rautela also provided stiff resistance against Nargis Malubhai before going down 18-16, 8-11, 9-11, 11-8, 10-12. Esha Monga put her best foot forward and managed to take game off Sapna Sharma with final scoreline being 11-6, 9-11, 8-11, 11-13

It was not surprising that the Andhra team also went out of reckoning when two of their main players, Karnam Spoorthy and Nikhat Bhanu, preferred their institution AAI over the state. Ironically, Andhra lost 0-3 to AAI.

Though Jharkhand lost to Maharashtra B with a similar margin, they should be credited for stretching two national-ranked players in Pooja Sahastrabudhe and Prajakta Tipale.

In the other matches, PSPB blanked out Chandigarh 3-0, Tamil Nadu accounted for Chattisgarh 3-0, Maharashtra A downed Uttar Pradesh 3-0, North Bengal defeated Madhya Pradesh 3-0 and West Bengal beat Assam 3-0.

In the men’s category, Tamil Nadu struggled to beat Assam 3-2.