Jubin Kumar-led Haryana overpowered Tamil Nadu 3-2 to sail into the men's semifinals of the 77th Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships at the Kotla Vijay Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, here today.
Haryana were joined in the men's semifinals by PSPB, who beat Rajasthan 3-0, Gujarat who won 3-1 against Railways and Maharashtra who downed West Bengal 3-1.
It was Jubin who masterminded Haryana's triumph as he won both his singles matches, paving the way for another bronze medal at least.
Last year, too, Haryana had claimed a team bronze but this time they are in a good position to overhaul Maharashtra who will be their opponents in the semis.
Jubin started with a win over Ravichandran Abhishek in a tough opening rubber which was carried on nicely by Sarthak Gandhi. But Tamil Nadu fought back well to restore order through L Sathiswaran and R Abhishek, in reverse singles when they accounted for both Mohit Verma and Sarthak Gandhi, respectively.
The ball was back in Jubin's court and the tall Sushmit was equally up to the task, taking his opponent down to wire. But the left-handed Jubin not only worked on his angles well but executed superb combination play to overcome Sushmit in the crucial fifth rubber.
Meanwhile in the women's quarterfinals, Tamil Nadu gave a twist to the tale by beating last year's semifinalist Maharashtra A 3-1, thanks to the heroics of Reeth Rishya who, despite pulling a thigh muscle, put her team to the medal reckoning.
Unable to find a place in PSPB squad, Reeth had to play for her state and Tamil Nadu gained through her entry today. Taking on a higher-ranked Divya Deshpande, who was spearheading Maharashtra's campaign, Reeth played a gutsy game, particularly in the decider. She was down 7-10 in the fifth game against Divya but ignoring her pain the diminutive paddler put her best foot forward and deuced.
After two more points, Reeth cashed in on her first match point and won 14-12 to put Tamil Nadu up.
However, Madhurika Patkar did not have to sweat it out against Amrutha Pushpak and restored parity.
The crucial third game went the Tamil Nadu way when Vidya Narasimha shut out Charvi Kawle after some struggle to win 3-2.
The matter then rested on Reeth and she surprisingly finished off her reverse singles against Madhurika quickly and deservingly.
Earlier, PSPB defeted Madhya Pradesh 3-0, Reserve Bank of India, keeping their well-deserved entry into the nationals intact, defeated North Bengal 3-1 with Sheweta Parte shouldering the burden of winning both her singles.
Karnataka became an easy prey to last year's runners-up West Bengal, who won 3-0.
