JOIN USUnseeded Birdie Boro sprang a surprise, recording an upset 4-2 (5-11, 11-3, 11-5, 11-9, 9-11, 11-7) win over third seed Harmeet Desai in the LIC-IOC All India National-ranking Table Tennis championships (South Zone) at the District indoor stadium here on Friday.
Earlier, former junior national champion Siddesh Pande of Maharashtra sent fifth seed Raj Mondal packing 4-3 (4-11, 11-8, 5-11, 4-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-5) to enter the pre-quarterfinals.
Nitin Thiruvengadam of Canara Bank was also on the verge of causing a major upset but failed to cash in on four match points against Sanil Shetty. Shetty eventually won the marathon battle that lasted nearly 95 minutes 12-10, 9-11, 4-11, 7-11, 11-8, 16-14, 12-10.
Top seed Sharath Kamal began well but was stretched by Tamil Nadu’s Ananth Devarajan before winning the tie 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6.
Seventh seed Akula Sreeja from the Reserve Bank of India was the lone first-round victim in women’s singles as she went down to Moumita Datta of AAI 8-11, 9-11, 14-12, 11-6, 8-11, 13-11, 11-8. She will next meet Yashini Sivashankar of Tamil Nadu, another promising youngster, who beat Kerala’s Maria Rony 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7, 11-6.
Mouma Das, who duly booked her place in the main draw Thursday night, had little problem in putting it across her PSPB colleague Mousumi Paul 11-4, 17-15, 11-7, 11-6.
Other important results (R-32, Men): Anirban Nandi (Rlys) bt Sourav Sha (PSPB) 11-8, 12-10, 12-10, 12-10; Omkar Torgalkar (Mah) bt Utkarsh Gupta (Del) 11-7, 10-12, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 11-6; Sougata Sarkar (LIC) bt Jalay Mehta (Guj) 11-7, 11-6, 12-10, 11-8; Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt Vivek Bhargava (Raj) 6-11, 11-6, 11-6, 13-11, 11-5; Subhajit Saha (PSPB) bt Jubin Kumar (PSPB) 11-9, 17-15, 15-13, 6-11, 11-8; Arjun Ghosh (AAI) bt Sanish Ambekar (Mah) 9-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8; Jeet Chandra (WB) bt Ronit Bhanja (WB) 11-6, 11-9, 11-8, 11-8; A Amalraj (PSPB) bt Anirban Ghosh (WB) 12-10, 11-6, 10-12, 11-5, 11-3; Abhishek Yadav (PSPB) bt Jignesh Jaiswal (Guj) 11-6, 11-9, 12-10, 11-7; Ravindra Kotiyan (Rlys) bt Sushmit Sriram (AAI) 11-2, 5-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5, 5-11, 11-5; Sudhanshu Grover (PSPB) bt Devesh Karia (Guj) 5-11, 11-3, 11-1, 11-4, 11-5; G Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Sivananda Sehsadrai (Central Revenue) 11-8, 11-6, 11-7, 11-1.