National Ranking Table Tennis Championships: Archana Kamath loses in first round

Former women’s table tennis national champion Archana Kamath meekly surrendered to former Cadet National table tennis champion Jennifer Varghese 1-4. The defeat for Archana Kamath came in the UTT National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships on Tuesday.

Archana was making her first appearance in a national table tennis ranking event for the first time this season.Hence, she had to play in the qualifiers to make the main draw cut.

Drawn against another unseeded player from Maharashtra, Archana should have sleep-walked into the Round-of-32. But, alas, the PSPB paddler, despite making a promising start, was demolished systematically by Jennifer, a teenager.

After leveling the score 1-1, the table tennis teenager grew in confidence and played as if there was no tomorrow. She was also helped by Archana’s folly, as the latter gave away unnecessary negative points.

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Instead of taking control of the match, Archana lost her way in the third and the fourth games. However, she tried to launch herself afresh in the fifth game, but it was too late in the day.

Her drooping shoulders told the sorry tale, letting the 13-year-old from Maharashtra celebrate a rare achievement.

A delighted Jennifer said it was her best win till date.

"It is my best win to date, beating a great player like Archana didi," she said in an elated tone.

Amrutha Pushpak of RBI survived a scare from Tamil Nadu table tennis player Kavyashree Baskar before surmounting it with a 4-3 win. She was down 1-3 but came back strong in the last three to enter the Round-of-32.

In the men’s singles second round, 11th-seed Shubh Goel and 16th-seed Payas Jain were shown the exit doors. Meanwhile the remaining 14 seeds moved into the Round-of-32.

Sarth Mishra of UP, a qualifier, accounted for Payas 4-2. The UP table tennis player was down 1-2 but recovered well to beat his Delhi rival easily.

It was a coincidence that another Delhi player, Shubh Goel, surrendered the initiative to Pankaj Kumar Vishwakarma of Madhya Pradesh. The MP table tennis player trailed 1-2 before upstaging his Delhi opponent.