Mumbai : Manasi Chiplunkar of Mumbai City District shocked top seed Manushree Patil in a 4-3 thriller to enter the youth girls’ semi-finals, in the JVPG 3rd Maharashtra State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament, at the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana, on Friday.
Manasi overcame the in-form Manushree 11-8, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6, 7-11, 5-11, 11-6 after leading 3-1 and enduring a late challenge, on a dramatic day of upsets and close encounters. Manasi, of Vaze Kelkar College, Mulund was the toast of the day when she later upset fourth seed Shrushti Haleangadi 3-11, 12-10, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7 to storm into the junior girls semi-finals.
As the junior top seed Manushree, of Patkar College, Goregaon suffered another shock defeat when she went down to lower ranked Shreya Deshpande of Thane 2-4. But Manushree made amends by advancing to the women’s semi-finals where she set up a clash with top seed Senhora D’Souza.
Men’s sixth seed Zubin Taraporewala of Thane rallied from a 1-3 deficit to shock third seed Noel Pinto of Mumbai Suburban 5-11, 11-5, 12-14, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 in another thriller to set up a semi-final clash with second seed Omkar Torgalkar who was taken the distance by Mandar Hardikar.
As the youth boys third seed, Hardikar was shocked by Jash Dalvi in the quarter-finals in another 4-3 thriller, but made amends with an upset 4-2 win over second seed Shaurya Pednekar to enter the junior boys semi-finals.
