Siliguri, Dec. 2: Assam stunned Tamil Nadu with a 3-1 victory to enter the quarter-finals of the sub-junior boys team event in the 78th cadet and sub-junior national Table Tennis Championships at the SMC Indoor Stadium on Friday.
Tamil Nadu, comprising Preyesh Raj, Vishwa Deenadayalan and Varun Ganesh -- all match winners on their day -- would not have anticipated such a bad thrashing despite their being cadet boys.
The Assam boys must be given credit for the way they approached the match and took on the might of Tamil Nadu to make a bold statement at the nationals.
Vishwa was the lone player to post a win when he beat Arshad Zubayr in the first rubber but the shocking defeat by Preyesh Raj, who swept through all zonal titles this season, upset their applecart, thanks to Agniv Bhaskar who won both his singles. In between, the Assamese pair accounted for Vishwa and Varun Ganesh in the doubles to complete their misery.
In another shock defeat, last year’s bronze medallist Haryana were sent packing by Gujarat’s cadet girls in the pre quarter-finals when the latter posted a hard fought 3-2 victory.
Apart from these two results, the other teams that entered the main draw quarter-finals had easy outings against their rivals.
Assam’s sub-junior girls had another surprise in store when they defeated Uttar Pradesh 3-1, thanks to Trisha Gogoi who shouldered the maximum burden for Assam. After Gargee defeated Suhana Narjinary 3-1, Trisha outplayed Radhapriya Goel by a similar verdict to put the northeast team 2-0 up.
But the Assamese pair lost their doubles to Gargee and Trisha who won 3-1. Trisha helped her team with a 11-13, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8 win against Suhana to complete another fruitful outing in the knockout stage.
