Tamil Nadu defeated Odisha 3-1 to enter the quarter-finals of the Senior Nationals Table Tennis Championship on Friday.
Reeth Rishya lost 13-15, 12-10, 12-10, 6-11, 8-11 to junior player Anannya Basak. However, Yashini Sivashankar won her two singles and Selanadeepthi Selvakumar also contributed win a win to guide Tamil Nadu to the quarters. Reeth, despite leading 2-1 against the Odisha youngster, could not stop Anannya from clawing her way back into the second singles and level the team score.
But then Selena put Tamil Nadu ahead again when she beat Prusty Samartha 11-6, 11-8, 13-11 and thereafter it was left to Yashini to take care of Anannya. The Tamil Nadu girl, who beat Poushali Ghatak in the first singles 3-0, repeated the performance against Anannya to win 11-7, 11-4, 11-3.
Tamil Nadu will now take on Kerala, who sent Maharashtra A packing 3-2 in a marathon with as many as 22 games being played. Maharashtra B also lost 0-3 to PSPB and as a result the state paddlers would leave Ranchi without a team medal.
Maharashtra’s early exit has put a question mark over the team’s entry into the National Games to be held in Goa later this year. One of their teams will have to finish ninth here to be eligible to earn a berth at the Games as only eight teams make the cut, including hosts Goa.
