Indore, Dec 28 (.) The men’s and women’s singles Round of 32 at the 52nd Institutional Table Tennis Championships proved to be a demanding examination of depth and discipline, as Day 5 at Abhay Prashal delivered a mix of authority and attrition across the tables here on Sunday.
PSPB’s strong bench was evident early, with Manav Thakkar setting the tone through a brisk straight-game win over P.B. Abhinand of Tamil Nadu, even as Sanil Shetty absorbed resistance from Yashansh Malik of AAI before closing out in four.
Seeds Payas Jain and Jash Modi were both pushed hard, each surviving tough encounters that swung sharply in momentum before decisive surges. Harmeet Desai, however, was clinical, navigating past K.J. Aakash in three tightly contested games.
The round also featured several gritty battles. Ronit Bhanja outlasted teammate Anirban Ghosh in a tense five-gamer, while Mohammed Ali showed composure at crunch moments to edge Raj Mondal, sealing the match with a narrow 14–12 fourth game. Kushal Chopda and Jeet Chandra similarly held their nerve in extended duels, underlining the fine margins at this stage.
Luckily, there was little room for complacency. Raegan Albuquerque, Sudhanshu Grover, SFR Snehit, and Divyansh Srivastava all progressed with controlled performances, keeping rallies short with constant pressure. Ankur Bhattacharjee and Manush Shah mixed aggression with patience to negotiate four-game wins, while H. Jeho and Snehit ensured IA&AD maintained a solid presence in the last 16.
The women’s singles draw was jolted by a major early upset as top seed Diya Chitale of the RBI
was sent packing by an unseeded Prithoki Chakraborty of FCI in a bruising four-game battle.
Prithoki stood tall when it mattered most, grinding her way through two nerve-shredding deuce games—the second stretching endlessly—before closing out a memorable 13-11, 20-18, 2-11, 11-8 win. Diya, with muscle strain, put up a good fight, but it was of no avail, and the pain was showing on the RBI woman’s face.
Second seed Yashaswini Ghorpade of PSPB was forced to dig deep to avoid a similar fate. Kavyashree Baskar of Tamil Nadu dictated terms for long stretches and repeatedly put Yashaswini under the pump, leading in all of the opening four deuce games. But her inability to convert crucial game points swung the contest.
The PSPB woman seized the reprieve, clawing her way back point by point to escape with a dramatic five-game victory, 10-12, 13-15, 15-13, 12-10, 11-9.
Several other encounters also went down to the wire, underlining the intensity of the round. Anjali Rohilla (IA&AD) outlasted ninth seed Reeth Rishya (PSPB) in a see-saw five-gamer, and Yashini Sivasankar, also IA&AD, rebounded strongly after trading blows with Nithyashree Mani of Tamil Nadu to power through in the decider.
Elsewhere, there were no further shocks at the top, though a handful of lower seeds bowed out after being stretched in hard-fought matches.
Overall, the Round of 32 reinforced the competitive density of the field. Straight-game victories were earned rather than gifted, and those advancing into the Round of 16 did so after navigating sustained resistance—setting up a sharper, more unforgiving phase of the championship.
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