Baboor two hurdles away from making it five in a row

But the day belonged to Saurav Chakravorty, a 10th standard student of MC Welham High School in Alipur (Calcutta), who ended the run of second seed Arjun Dutta in four games in round two. A trainee of Jayant Pushilal, the left-handed junior had earlier taken a game off Baboor in the team events league. This morning, Chakravorty was at his attacking best as his counter-attacks baffled Arjun Dutta. However, Chakravorty went down to Ganesh Kundu (Railways) in the pre-quarters, in straightgames.

The tall Shivaji Dutta played an excellent game against former National champion Arup Basak in the quarters before going down in five games. Similarly, Bhushan Thakur put up a grim fight against left-handed S Raman (No 3 seed) before losing in five games. Soumyadeep entered the semis with a hard-earned four-game win over Kundu.

Anindita Chakraborty’s loss to Karnataka’s Archana Vishwanth came as a big surprise as the Railways player has been chasing the National women’s crown that had been eluding her all these years. But Archana, fresh from her marathon five-game win over Mamta Prabbu (Maharashtra) in the second round which lasted 80 minutes, played an attacking game to overcome a tardy-looking Anindita.

Archana, however, could not progress further as two successive five-game encounters told on her physique in her quarterfinal match against Mantu Ghosh which she lost without any resistance.

Reigning champion Poulami Ghatak moved into the semis with a four-game triumph over former championKasturi Chakraborty while in the battle between two PSCB stars, NR Indu prevailed over MS Mythili in another five-game marathon.

Mouma Das, twice runner-up at the Nationals, blasted her way through to the semis with a win over A Radhika of Kerala.

Results

Men singles (Quarter-finals): Chetan Baboor bt Subhajit Saha 21-14, 21-12, 21-14, S Raman bt Bhushan Thakur 21-13, 17-21, 21-10, 19-21, 21-13, Arup Basak bt Shivaji Dutta 21-18, 21-11, 16-21, 19-21, 21-19, Soumyadeep Roy bt Ganesh Kundu 21-16, 21-14, 11-21, 21-10

Pre-quarter-finals): Chetan Baboor (PSCB) bt Rohit Chaud (MP) 21-13, 21-13, 21-14, Subhajit Saha Sr (PSCB) bt Nachiket Chawat (21-16, 21-15, 21-8), Arup Basak (PSCB) bt Deepak Thukral (Dena Bank) 21-10, 25-23, 21-12, Shivaji Dutta (Rly) bt S Sriram (PSCB) 21-11, 21-7, 11-21, 21-14, S Raman (PSCB) bt Ranabir Das (21-14, 21-15, 21-14, Bhushan Thakur (Rly) bt Sunil Babras (DB) 21-15, 21-14, 21-17, Soumyadeep Roy (PSCB) bt Nilesh Vaid (MP) 21-13, 321-12, 21-15, Ganesh Kundu (Rly)bt Saurav Chakraborty (Bng) 21-16, 21-16, 21-19.

Women’s singles (quarter-finals): Mouma Das bt A Radhika 21-15, 13-21, 21-15, 21-12, Mantu Ghosh bt Archana Vishwanath 21-16, 21-18, 21-18, NR Indu bt MS Mythili 21-15, 21-15, 17-21, 14-21, 21-11, Poulami Ghatak bt Kasturi Chakraborty 28-26, 21-18, 21-23, 21-12.

Pre-quarter-finals: Mouma Das (PSCB) bt Ekta Bhambri (21-17, 21-13, 21-19, A Radhika (Ker) bt Rani Chandrima (Raj) 15-21, 21-15, 21-17, 21-14, Mantu Ghosh (PSCB) bt Nandini Kulkarni (Del), 21-18, 21-12, Archana Vishwanath (Kar) bt Anidita Chakraborty (Rly) 17-21, 21-16, 21-12, 11-21, 21-17, NR Indu (PSCB) bt Avanti Sinha (Ban) 21-18, 21-12, 221-20, MS Mythili (PSCB) bt Ritu Ghorpade (Del) 21-15, 21-19, 21-12, Kasturi Chakraborty (Rly) bt Bishakha Vijay (Raj) 21-12, 21-13, 21-23, 21-15, Poulami Ghatak (PSCB) bt B Bhuvaneshwari (TN) 21-23, 21-14, 21-15, 21-14