Nithyashree topples Ayhika, enters pre-quarters at National Table Tennis Championships

Ayhika could not convert her match points in time and let the Chennai player get too closer for her comfort

Visakhapatnam: Nithyashree Mani of Bank of Baroda Sports Control Board (BBSCB) caused a major upset when she beat fourth seed Ayhika Mukherjee of RBI in the Round of 32 singles of the ongoing National Table Tennis Championships here on Sunday.

Ayhika could not convert her match points in time and let the Chennai player get too closer for her comfort.

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From the comfort zone, the RBI women made a few silly errors that allowed Nithyashree to deuce. After that, Nithyashree held on and prematurely halted the progress of Ayhika.

It was the only upset as other women’s seeds matched into the pre-quarterfinals. Syndrela Das of West Bengal gave some torrid moments to Manika Batra in the second game, but the PSPB warded off the threat to move ahead.

Second-seed Sreeja Akula dropped a game to Oishiki Joardar of West Bengal before gathering herself to beat her, as did Archana Kamath, the fifth seed, against Taneesha Kotecha of AAI.

Thirteenth seed Payas Jain bit the dust and went down to Jayabrata Bhattacharjee of West Bengal in the round of 64. The Delhi paddler lost, after some fighting, 11-9, 14-12, 5-11, 12-14, 8-11. Payas took a comfortable lead, but Jayabratha struck back strongly to outsmart Payas.

Other than the lone minor upset, all other seeded players advanced to the next round. But second-seeded Sharath Kamal dropped two games in his second-round match against Arjun Ghosh of the Railways.

Arjun took the lead, but Sharath went 2-1 up before dropping another game. Soon after, he completed the task with an easy win in the next.

Ninth-seeded Subh Goel of Delhi struggled before outgunning Sarthak Seth of IA&AD in his second-round match 3-2.