Gutsy Mouma Das shows character; Manika Batra, Harmeet Desai exit in TT Nationals

Mouma Das advanced to the last-eight stage of the women's singles in the Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships here on Sunday. Manika lost to Ayhika Mukherjee 3-4 (11-7, 8-11, 4-11, 11-9, 5-11, 13-11, 3-11) to make a premature exit from the tournament. Ayhika made most of the chances that came her way to outsmart her famed opponent.

Manika was down 1-2 initially against Ayhika but she came back strongly to level the score 2-2 and then 3-3. In the decider, Ayhika reeled off winners after winners to score an upset win over her top-seeded opponent. On the other hand, five-time national champion Mouma defeated second seed Diya Chitale 4-3 to enter women's singles quarterfinals.

Picking up a racquet after a three-year hiatus, the 38-year-old Mouma made a remarkable recovery from 0-3 deficit to beat her teenage opponent. Trailing 0-3, Mouma took the last four games. She won the fourth game on deuce and that provided her with the impetus to fight back and close out her 18-year-old rival.

But Diya, despite being in a good position in the fourth, became error-prone at crucial junctures of the game. Mouma, the mother of a two-year-old son, seized those little moments and surged ahead. Third-seed Reeth Rishya survived a scare from Sutirtha Mukherjee before winning 4-3.

Anusha Kutambale from MP and Takeme Sarkar from RSPB, both unseeded, also entered the quarterfinals. Apart from Manika and Diya, eighth-seed Prapti Sen also failed to advance further. Earlier, promising Archana Kamath lost to a tenacious Yashini Sivashankar of Tamil Nadu 3-4 in the round of 32.