Vijayawada: Manipur’s Khelendrajit Yengkhom struggled past Raghuraam Prakasam of Tamil Nadu 11-4, 7-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, even as junior paddler Balamurugan Rajasekaran, also from Tamil Nadu, beat Harshit Kumar from Bihar 3-2 in another intriguing encounter as the main draw events in men singles got underway in the fourth UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the Ramakotaiah Indoor Stadium today.
Raghuram was on the back foot straight away as he dropped the first game. Yet, he staged a nice comeback to win the second and third games. With just a game away from making the round of 64 grade, the TN boy faltered, and the Manipuri won the next two to advance.
Balamurugan, who completed a hat-trick of U-19 Boys titles in Vadodara, led 2-0 before dropping the next two to Harshit. The boy from Bihar showed maturity despite the early losses but failed to press home the advance in the decider. The TN boy played a notch better and cleaned it up quickly for a 12-10, 11-8, 9-11, 9-11, 11-8.
In the third tough round of 128 battle of the day, Sarthak Gandhi of Haryana was in a precarious position when he trailed 0-2 against Shivam Chandra of UP. But the former put up a good fight to restore parity, taking the next two consecutive games before outplaying the UP paddler in the decisive fifth game to win 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8. Sarthak executed a few brilliant shots with great placements that pushed the UP player down.
Of the three who qualified for the women’s singles main draw, Ramjali Kajol was the lone Andhra player among the top groups. And Ramjali, after her first-round win yesterday over Mohona Ghosh of West Bengal, had a tough outing against India No. 19, Sagarika Mukherjee from the Railways. But it did not deter the No. 167 ranked national player, who outlasted the RSPB paddler 3-2 to qualify from Group 4. The Andhra girl defeated Sagarika 11-9, 6-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9. It was an unexpected win for the Andhra girl, who showed her resoluteness to oust the experienced Sagarika.
From the latter groups, Shailu Noorbasha defeated Riddhima Kapoor from Delhi 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-4 in the first round yesterday and today accounted for Priyanka Ganguly from West Bengal 10-12, 11-3, 11-6, 11-3. Both wins in Group 32 put her in the knockout stage alongside the elites.
The third woman to qualify from Andhra was Guna Samyukta. She kept a clean slate in the four-member Group 47, but her 11-8, 13-11, 11-9 win over junior paddler Risha Mirchandani from Maharashtra ensured Samyukta’s place in the main draw. It was surprising to see Risha going down the way she did despite her resistance in the second game. However, later today, the women’s singles main draw will shed light on the fate of three Andhra players who survived the qualifying ordeal and made it count.
