Pondicherry men beat AP 3-2 in Senior Nationals TT

Pondicherry men scored a 3-2 upset win over Andhra Pradesh to guide their team into the pre-quarterfinals of the 78th Senior Nationals table tennis tournament at the Manesar Sports Club here today.
This was Pondicherry's first passage into the main draw in 13 years. The last time they did it was at the Manesar nationals, held in 2004.
Having been clubbed in Group A as the fourth team with PSPB, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, none would have imagined Pondicherry making the cut. But what turned the tables in favour was the most important win they registered against Andhra Pradesh.

In fact, the start was as bad as one would have visualized in the first round when V Sudarsanane went down 9-11, 6-11, 14-16 to A Gowtham Krishna. But Vijaykrishnan scripted a fine 5-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-5 victory over A Jagadish Krishna to level the score.
S Ayyappan, cashing in on the situation, beat Shaik Firoz 9-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-3 in the third singles to take them closer at the target.
But then their No. 1 player, Sudarsanane, failed to raise his game and went down in his reverse singles too as Jagdish won 13-11, 11-1, 5-11, 11-5, shifting the entire burden on Vijaykrishnan.

Vijaykrishnan did rise to the occasion and easily took the first two games in the deciding rubber against Gowtham Krishna. But the Andhra paddler recovered soon and brought the score level, taking the issue to the last game. Vijay ran up a quick lead and led 6-3 when Gowtham took the timeout. But it was of no use as he could not stop the rampaging Vijay who won with a lot to spare.

In the second round, they took on Himachal Pradesh and this time it was the turn of Sudarsanane to do what Vijaykrishnan did against Andhra.
Posting a 12-10, 11-3, 9-11, 7-11, 11-4 win over Madhav Singh Kanwar he provided the lead. But Vijay lost to Adish Rana rather tamely (5-11, 8-11, 6-11). Luckily Ayyappan kept Pondichery flag flying with a 11-8, 11-9, 11-7 triumph over Mehul Sharma before Sudarsanane completing the job for a fine finish. He beat Rana 13-11, 11-9, 11-3.

Pondicherry will later play PSPB but the result will have no bearing as they should finish behind the holders as the second qualifier from the group.
Runners-up Haryana posted two clean 3-0 wins over Chhattisgarh and Punjab to more or less take their Group B leader position, thanks to a fine teamwork by Soumyajit Ghosh, Sourav Saha, Jubin Kumar and Mohit Verma.
The other group leaders, too, secured their place in men's team events as did PSPB without a sweat.
The hosts' women's team followed their men into the pre-quarterfinals along with Tamil Nadu in Group D. Except the opening loss against leader Tamil Nadu, Haryana's Riti Shankar, Sanya Sehgal and Suhana Saini pulled it off against Andhra Pradesh and Tripura with 3-0 verdicts.

The other teams that made it to the main draw include PSPB, Rajasthan, North Bengal, Maharshtra and Karnataka. All of them posted two wins each in their respective groups.
Against Tamil Nadu, it was a bad start for Haryana as both Sanya and Riti went down to their opponents in two hard fought rubbers. Vidya Narasimhan had to bring in all her experience to the table to beat Sanya 11-6, 8-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-6 while Amrutha Pushpak, too faced the wrath of Riti, before overcoming her 9-11, 12-10, 11-98-11, 11-3.
But the Cadet National champion Suhana Saini outwitted Selenadeepthi Selvakumar 11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8 to restore some pride. However, Amrutha did not waste time to put it across Sanya in her reverse singles in straight games.