Table Tennis
Table Tennis Nationals: Ayhika Mukherjee stunned by Nithyashree
Fourth-seed Ayhika Mukherjee lost while Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula moved to the next round of the Table Tennis National Championship.
Ayhika Mukherjee
Youngster Nithyashree Mani stunned fourth seed Ayhika Mukherjee of RBI in the round of 32 of the ongoing National Table Tennis Championships in Vishakhapatnam on Sunday.
The paddler from Chennai who plays for Bank of Baroda stopped Ayhika from converting her match points and took advantage of some lazy play.
It was the only upset in the women's section as Manika Batra (Petroleum Sports Promotion Board) defeated Syndreal Das of West Bengal after struggling in some moments.
Current national champion Sreeja Akula (Petroleum Sports Promotion Board) overcame Oishiki Joardar of West Bengal after conceding one game to the youngster.
Archana Kamath of PSPB also moved forward after defeating Taneesha Kotecha of the Airport Authority of India.
In men's singles, 13th-seed Delhi paddler Payas Jain suffered an upset as he was defeated 11-9, 14-12, 5-11, 12-14, 8-11 by Jayabrata Bhattacharjee of West Bengal who made a superb comeback from two games down.
Second-seeded Achanta Sharath Kamal, who represents Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, continued his pursuit of an eleventh national title with a win over Arjun Ghosh of the Railways after dropping two games.
The Table Tennis nationals will serve as an important tournament for the paddlers who are in the squad for the upcoming Asian Championships in Korea and Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
