Qualifier Yengkhom Khelendrajit (Manipur) upset top seed Ankur Bhattacharjee (Bengal) to enter the Youth Boys (under-17) quarterfinals in the 83rd National junior and youth table tennis championships at the N.C. John memorial YMCA TT Arena here on Wednesday.
Khelendrajit's defensive game put him in good stead against Ankur, who struggled to find any sort of rhythm. After losing a close first set 10-12, Ankur bounced back to take the second 11-7. But in the seesaw third set the Manipur lad kept his nerve to crawl back for a 13-11 win. Khelendajit held the aces in the fourth set and mixed his shots well to pocket the match 12-10, 7-11, 13-11, 11-9.
Tamil Nadu's Suresh Raj Preyesh entered the quarterfinals with a 11-7, 11-6, 11-8 win over Ayan Ghosh. In the quarterfinals, Suresh will meet Jash Modi who beat Sujal Banik (TTFI) 15-13, 11-3, 11-6 in the pre-quarterfinals.
In the under-19 category, it was business as usual for top seed Payas jain who breezed into the pre-quarterfinals with 12-10, 11-8, 11-9 win over Jayabrata Bhattacharjee (Bengal). However, K.J. Akash (Karnataka) upset sixth seed H. Jeho (Manipur) 12-10, 11-4, 11-8 in the second round
The results: Under-17: Pre-quarterfinals: Yengkhom Khelendrajit (Man) bt Ankur Bhattacharjee (Ben) 12-10, 11-8, 11-9; Suresh Raj Preyesh (TNTTA) bt Ayan Ghosh (Ben) 11-7, 11-6, 11-8; Jash Modi (Mah) bt Sujal Baink (TTFI) 15-13, 11-3, 11-6.
Under-19: Second round: Payas Jain (Del) bt Jayabrata Bhattacharjee (Ben) 12-10, 11-8, 11-9; Josh Modi (Mah) bt Swastik Athanikar (Mah) 14-12, 11-7, 7-11, 11-4; Varun Balusuri (Tel) bt Aditya Swagnik (TTFI) 16-14, 11-7, 7-11, 11-4; K.J. Adarash (Kar) bt H. Jeho (Man) 12-10, 11-4, 11-8; Sarat Mishra (UP) bt Bhaskar Praneet (Ben) 18-16, 11-9, 12-10.
