Snehit stuns Ankur, enters UTT National Ranking semis

SFR Snehit and Ronit Bhanja caused major upsets in the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships, defeating higher-seeded opponents to reach the men’s singles semifinals, while top seeds progressed in the women’s section

Hyderabad: The UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships at the SAMA Indoor Stadium witnessed major upsets as No. 2 seed Ankur Bhattacharjee (West Bengal) and No. 3 seed G Sathiyan (PSPB) crashed out.

The seventh seed SFR Snehit (IA\&AD) overcame Ankur 3-1, while Ronit Bhanja (No. 11) outlasted Sathiyan by the same margin. Top seed and reigning national champion Manush Shah, however, stayed on course with a composed 3-1 victory over No. 8 Akash Pal (Railways).

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Snehit combined smart game control with timely bursts of aggression, mixing his service variations effectively to keep Ankur on the back foot despite some engaging long rallies. Ronit, meanwhile, capitalised on Sathiyan’s inconsistency, patiently constructing points and exploiting errors. Sathiyan had narrowly scraped through his round-of-32 clash against PB Abhinand earlier, but on this occasion lost his touch in crucial phases, allowing Ronit to pull away.

In the women’s singles, top seed Diya Chitale (RBI) breezed past No. 8 Krittwika Sinha Roy (PSPB) 3-0 to set up a semifinal against Anusha Kutumbale (Railways), who battled past No. 4 Sutirtha Mukherjee 3-2. No. 3 seed Swastika Ghosh (Maharashtra) swept qualifier Prithoki Chakraborty (FCI) off her feet with a 3-0 triumph, while second seed Yashaswini Ghorpade was pushed to the distance before edging qualifier Divyanshi Bhowmick 3-2.

Unlike Krittwika’s close battle with Jennifer Varghese, Swastika and Prithoki showed greater urgency in their final games. Swastika, already 2-0 up, closed out the contest swiftly against Kavya Bhatt, while Prithoki, after seeing Sneha Bhowmick level the score, held her nerve to finish the job.

The results:
Men’s singles – Quarterfinals:
Manush Shah (RBI) bt Akash Pal (RSPB) 11-9, 11-3, 11-8;
Payas Jain (Del) bt Divyansh Srivastava (PSPB) 12-10, 13-11, 11-1;
Ronit Bhanja (RSPB) bt G Sathiyan (PSPB) 5-11, 12-10, 14-12, 11-5;
SFR Snehit (IA\&AD) bt Ankur Bhattacharjee (WB) 12-10, 5-11, 11-5, 11-9.

Women’s singles – Quarterfinals:
Diya Chitale (RBI) bt Krittwika Sinha Roy (PSPB) 11-7, 11-4, 11-9;
Anusha Kutumbale (RSPB) bt Sutirtha Mukherjee (RSPB) 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9;
Swastika Ghosh (Mah) bt Prithoki Chakraborty (FCI) 11-9, 11-9, 11-3;
Yashaswini Ghorpade (PSPB) bt Divyanshi Bhowmick (Mah) 11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 9-11, 11-7.