Top-seeded mixed doubles pair of Sanil Shetty and Reeth Rishya witnessed an upset and crashed out of the National Games on Thursday.
The top-seeded pair of Sanil Shetty and Reeth Rishya went down 0-3 to unseeded Manav Thakkar and Filzahfatema Kadri. The husband-wife duo, which got a first-round bye, played and lost tamely to an exuberant Gujarat pair, Kadri combining well with Thakkar. The mixed doubles event that set the ball rolling on the third day of the 36th National Games competition at the Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya Indoor Stadium here today, only three seeded pairs survived to enter the quarterfinals.
In the women’s doubles, however, Sreeja Akula and Nikhat Banu, the fourth-seeds from Telangana, went out while the other seeds made their quarterfinal entry without hiccups. Sreeja and Nikhat went down 2-3 to a determined Tamil Nadu pair of N. Deepika and V. Kowshika, but not before they staved off the threat from the Telangana players, who kept their chances alive until the decider.
Fifth-seeded Siddesh Pandey and Swastika Ghosh, also of Maharashtra, exited in the first round when UP’s Abhishek Yadav and Suhana Narjinary won 3-0 without breaking a sweat. Yet another pair from the state, Deepit R Patil and Diya Chitale, also made their way out after losing to the unseeded West Bengal duo of Ronit Bhanja and Koushani Nath in straight games.
But seventh-sed Jeet Chandra and Sutirtha Mukherjee of Bengal failed to cross the second-round hurdle and lost to Maharashtra’s Ravindra Kotiyan and Shruti Amrute 3-2, the winners making a comeback after 1-2 down. In the match-up between West Bengal’s Anirban Ghosh and Mouma Das and Mohammed Ali and Varuni Jaiswal of Telangana, the former trailed 0-2 before staging the recovery.
Results (Pre-Quarterfinals):
Mixed Doubles: Manav Thakkar/Filzahfatema Kadri (Guj) bt Sanil Shetty/Reeth Rishya (Mah) 11-7, 11-8, 11-7; Anirban Ghosh/Mouma Das (WB) bt Mohammed Ali/Varuni Jaiswal (Telg) 11-13, 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-4; Abhishek Yadav/Suhana Narjinary (UP) bt Aman Balgu/Nikhat Banu (Telg) 12-10, 11-7, 11-5; Manush Shah/Krittwika Sinha Roy (Guj) bt Jubin Kumar/Riti Shankar (Har) 11-1, 11-4, 11-7; Ronit Bhanja/Koushani Nath (WB) bt Deepit R Patil/Diya Chitale (Mah) 12-10, 11-5, 11-9; Akash Pal/Prapti Sen (WB) bt Harmeet Desai/Frenaz Chipia (Guj) 12-10, 11-8, 11-5; Ravi Kotiyan/Shruti Amrute (Mah) bt Jeet Chandra/Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) 11-6, 5-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9; SFR Snehit/Sreeja Akula (Telg) bt Ishaan Mahesh Hingorani/Kausha Bhairapure (Guj) 11-5, 11-2, 11-2.
Women’s Doubles: Diya Chitale/Swastika Ghosh (Mah) bt Radhapriya Goel/Suhana Narjinary (UP) 11-5, 11-8, 11-4; Krittwika Sinha Roy/Frenaz Chipia (Guj) bt Lakshita Narang/Tamanna Saini (Del) 11-0, 11-13, 11-7, 11-8; Ayhika Mukherjee/Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) bt Mariya Rony/A Samyuktha (Kar) 11-9, 11-5, 11-6; N. Deepika/V. Kowshika (TN) bt Sreeja Akula/Nikhat Banu (Telg) 11-7, 6-11, 11-5, 10-12, 11-9; Shruti Amrute/Reeth Rishya (Mah) bt Suhana Saini/Riti Shankar (Har) 11-7, 11-3, 11-6; S. Yashini/CR Harshavardhini (TN) bt Filzahfatema Kadri (Guj) 11-9, 11-5, 12-10; Yashashwini Gorphade/Kushi Viswanath (Kar) bt G Prannithi/Varuni Jaswal (Telg) 12-10, 11-5, 11-6; Takeme Sarkar/Prapti Sen (WB) bt Anannya Basak/Vidhi Shah (Mah) 11-6, 11-7, 11-7. (ANI)
