National champion Soumyajit Ghosh today entered the men's singles semifinals of the RSPB-hosted 45th All India International Table Tennis Championships after outplaying unseeded Sudhanshu Grover, but top-seed G Sathiyan bowed out in the quarterfinals here.
Soumyajit has now joined Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty and Anthony Amalraj in semifinals.
Ghosh thrashed Grover 4-1, while Shetty downed Devesh Karia 4-2 and Amalraj beat Sathiyan 4-2.
But it was PSPB's Harmeet, who survived a scare before prevailing over showstopper from West Bengal, Anirban Ghosh 4-3. It turned out to be the match of the day.
Both of them played excellent games, not afraid of going for fast-paced shots. They also exploited the angles very well. Anirban's down-the-line winners were even applauded by Harmeet.
Ultimately it was Harmeet's experience that helped him overcome Anirban.
In the women's singles,
Earlier, Madhurika Patkar, Manika Batra, Ankita Das and K Shamini advanced to the semifinals.
Earlier, the top two seeds -- Mouma Das and Pooja Sahasrabudhe -- crashed out of the tournament after losing their respective matches.
Top seed Mouma, the current national champion, was toppled by qualifier Shweta Parte, who won 12-10 11-7 6-11 11-7 11-9.
Pooja, seeded second, also went down to another qualifier from Rupsa Bhattacharya 3-2. But Pooja, unlike Mouma, put up some fight before bowing out. Rupsa won 11-7 8-11 9-11 2-11 11-7 11-7 11-7.
Results:
Women's singles quarterfinals: Madhurika Patkar (PSPB) bt Shreya Ghosh (RSPB) 4-1 (11-9 11-5 7-11 11-2 11-4); Manika Batra (PSPB) bt Nikhat Banu (AAI) 4-2 (10-12 11-5 11-5 9-11 11-7 11-7); Ankita Das (PSPB) bt Krittwika Sinha Roy (RBI) 4-3 (9-11 11-6 11-7 6-11 11-4 8-11 11-2); K Shamini (PSPB) bt Amrutha Pushpak (AAI) 4-2 (11-7 9-11 9-11 11-9 11-7 11-4).
Men's singles quarterfinals: Anthony Amalraj (PSPB) bt G Sathiyan (PSPB) 4-2 (7-11 13-11 5-11 11-9 11-9 11-7); Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Anirban Ghosh (WB) 4-3 (5-11 12-10 7-11 11-9 11-8 5-11 11-5); Sanil Shetty (PSPB) bt Devesh Karia (CRSB) 4-2 (11-7 7-11 6-11 11-6 11-3 11-3 12-10); Soumyajit Ghosh (PSPB) bt Sudhanshu Grover (PSPB) 4-1 (5-11 11-4 11-6 11-5 11-8).
