Mumbai : Third seed Arnav Karnavar fashioned exciting back-to-back wins to storm into the cadet boys semi-finals, in the 5 Star Mumbai Suburban District Table Tennis Championship, at the Goregaon Sports Club on Monday.
Maharashtra No. 5 Karnavar, who trains under coach Gurucharan Singh at the Guru Academy, kicked off a rewarding day when he recovered from a 0-2 deficit to overcome Neev Kapadia 8-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-7, 11-2 in a thrilling pre-quarter-final before prevailing over Mayuresh Shinde 11-8, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6 in the quarterfinals.
Karnavar, of Ryan International CBSE, Malad will next take on second seed Mainak Nistala whom he beat in the semi-finals in the 5th State Ranking at Dombivli Gymkhana last week. Top seed Rajveer Shah will face fourth seed Havish Asrani in the other semi-final.
Asrani also survived a scare when he was stretched by formidable Jash Modi 11-5, 5-11, 11-6, 16-14 in another exciting quarter-final, after dropping the second game and snatching the nail-biting fourth over extra points.