Krittwika keeps Gujarat flag flying high, storms into quarters
Strap: Upsets galore as top seeds falter in early rounds
Surat, Jan.25: Seasoned paddler Krittwika Sinha Roy of Gujarat pipped sixth seed Reeth Rishya of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) 3-2 in a high-octane pre-quarter final encounter of the UTT 86th Senior National Inter-State Table Tennis Championships 2024 played at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium from January 19 to 26.
The Championships is organized by Gujarat State Table Tennis Association (GSTTA) and Table Tennis Association of Surat District (TTASD) under the aegis of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) with the support of Sports Authority of India (SAI), Sports Authority of Gujarat (SAG) and Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC).
The title sponsor of the event is UTT and the event is powered by Hero, co-sponsored by NJ Group, associate sponsored by Gujarat Tourism, ONGC, Pratibha Group and Airport Authority of India. Stiga will be equipment partners while SIDS Hospital will be the medical partner.
With this hard-fought 11-8, 8-11, 12-10, 8-11, 14-12 victory, the 30-year-old stormed into the quarterfinal and kept the Gujarat flag flying high while all other Gujarat team’s paddlers faded away.
Meanwhile, the women’s singles saw a major shakeup in the Round of 32, with six seeded players eliminated. Among them were second-seed Swastika Ghosh, third-seed Sutirtha Mukherjee, ninth-seed Sayali Wani, 11th-seed Jennifer Varghese, 13th-seed Ayhika Mukherjee, and 14th-seed Selenadeepthi. The upsets continued in the pre-quarterfinals, where 10th-seed Pritha Vartikar, and 15th-seed Anusha Kutumbale also exited.
The men’s singles mirrored this trend, with defending champion and fourth-seed Harmeet Desai suffering a shocking Round of 32 defeat to his long-time rival Sanil Shetty. Other casualties in the same round included seventh-seed Anirban Ghosh, 10th-seed Yashansh Malik, 13th-seed Sourav Saha, and 14th-seed Ronit Bhanja. The pre-quarterfinals brought some relief, with only fifth-seed Akash Pal from Railways falling. He went down to Divyansh Srivastava of Uttar Pradesh 11-8, 8-11, 4-11, 9-11 in the most shocking way.
Men’s doubles final result:
PB Abhinandh and Suresh Raj (TN) bt Sourav Saha and Aniket Sen Chaudhary (WB) 3-1 (12-10, 4-11, 11-6, 11-7)