Table tennis: Lohapatre pulls off upset victory

Unseeded Gaurav Lohapatre pulled off an upset victory on Tuesday at the Solaris Masters District Ranking Table Tennis Tournament at Club Solaris...

Unseeded Gaurav Lohapatre pulled off an upset victory on Tuesday at the Solaris Masters District Ranking Table Tennis Tournament at Club Solaris,Kothrud,securing a third round victory over fifth-seeded Kedar Phutane.

Lohapatre had to fight hard to take the first two sets,winning 12-10,13-11 to gain the upper hand. The unseeded player cruised to victory in the third set,winning it 11-5 for a commendable straight-sets triumph.

Phutane was the only seeded player to falter in the third round,as all the other seeds recorded easy wins over their respective opponents. Top-seeded Anand Kale won his match against Atharv Datar without dropping a set,and second seed Dhruv Kaluskar gave away just seven points while handing Anurag Panikar a crushing defeat. Rohit Kudapatti,seeded seventh,and eighth-seeded Devansh Hakhmani were the other ranked players who bagged easy wins,said a press release.

Among the unseeded players,Atharva Bhat managed to beat Yash Kshirsagar after a marathon second set which ended 17-15 in the former’s favour. Bhat took the first set 11-9 and the third set 11-8 to secure a hard-earned victory.

Results:
Anand Kale (seed 1) bt Atharv Datar 11/2,11/9,11/9

Nandan Birole bt Asmit Sakhare 11/4,11/9,11/3

Devansh Hakhmani (seed 8) bt Shreyas Kadlak 11/6,11/2,13/11

Gaurav Lohapatre bt kedar phutane (seed 5) 12/10,13/11,11/5

Hrishikesh Date bt Nishat Joshi 13/11,11/6,11/4

Sawan Pimpalkar bt Ronit Vaidya 11/4,11/6,11/3

Rohit Kudapatti (seed 7) bt Saurish Maniyar 11/3,11/4,11/5

Vedant Brahme bt Rishi Gandhi 11/6,11/6,12/10.

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