Maharashtra’s Manushree Patil showed excellent form by winning both her Group-17 round-robin qualifying league matches of the 11Even Sports National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships which commenced at the Abhay Prashal, here, on Monday.
Manushree Patil
Manushree first defeated Adrija Sarmah of Assam 3-1 (11-13, 11-6, 11-6, 11-7) and then outplayed Shreya Ghosh of Railway Sports Promotion Board 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-3) and topped the group and has now qualified for the main draw. Adrija and Shreya will meet in the concluding league match on Tuesday, with the winner joining Manushree in the tournament proper.
Meanwhile, Indore girl Saswati Ghosh, who is making her maiden appearance for MP, made an impressive start beating Rutuja Khopkar of Maharashtra 7-11, 11-4, 11-4, 13-11 but found a big hurdle in West Bengal’s Mrittika Halder which the former had to cross. And the MP girl did that with a hard-fought 3-2 (7-11, 11-5, 4-11, 11-5, 11-6) to post two crucial wins. She has a match against No. 1 player in her group 21, Rupsa Bhattacharya of Railways, who is lying behind, having lost her second match to West Bengal rival Mrittika 2-3.
Results – Women’s qualifying – Group-17: Manushree Patil (Mah) beat Adrija Sarmah (Assam) 3-1 (11-13, 11-6, 11-6, 11-7); Manushree Patil (Mah) beat Shreya Ghosh (RSPB) 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-3).
Group-32: Srushti Halengadi (Mah) beat Anewsha Dutta (NB) 3-0 (11-4, 11-1, 11-4; Srushti Halengadi (Mah) lost Manisha Mukherjee (WB) 0-3 (8-11, 9-11, 7-11); Manisha Mukherjee (WB) beat Kritika Malik (Dli) 3-2 (13-11, 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 12-10); Kritika Malik (Dli) beat Anewsha Dutta (NB) 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-5).