PSCB men and women book three semis slots

Top seed Chetan Baboor, defending champion S Raman and Subhajit Saha, all belonging to the Petroleum Sports Control Board, entered the semi-finals of the men's singles in the 62nd Senior National and Inter-state table tennis championships on Wednesday.

Second seed Soumyadeep Roy of Rajasthan prevented a PSCB sweep by defeating Arjun Dutta to seal the remaining last four spot.

PSCB, the dominant force in the championship, having claimed the team championship titles in both the men's and women's categories, also claimed three berths in the semi-finals of the women's singles event.

Top seed N R Indu, fourth seed M S Mythili and sixth seed Poulomi Ghatak of PSCB stormed into the semi-finals while Bengal's Kasturi Chakraborty upset second seed Mouma Das (PSCB) in a gruelling five-game affair.

While Baboor will play Saha in one of the semi-finals on Thursday, Raman will clash with Soumyadeep Roy for a berth in the final.

In the women's semi-finals, Indu will play Mythili while Ghatak will take on Chakraborty.

Baboor defeated eighth seed Ranabir Das (Rlys) 21-18, 21-12, 18-21, 21-4 while Soumyadeep Roy outlasted Arjun Dutta (PSCB) 21-17, 21-18, 16-21, 21-15.

Defending champion S Raman, however, had to fight off a stiff challenge from Sourav Chakraborty (Bengal) before emerging victorious by 16-21, 21-17, 21-9, 13-21, 21-18.

In the other quarter-final tie, fourth seed Subhajit Saha defeated Shivaji Dutta (Railways) 21-19, 19-21, 21-19, 21-14 in a gruelling encounter.

In the women's quarter-finals, Indu had little difficulty in disposing off eighth seed Mallika Parekh of the Railways 21-14, 21-16, 21-6, while Mythili fought off the challenge from compatriot and fifth seeded Montu Ghosh 21-15, 18-21, 21-11, 20-22, 21-12 in an energy sapping duel.

Third seeded Anindita Chakraborty of Railways also crashed out of contention when she was ousted by Poulami Ghatak (PSCB--sixth seed) 14-21, 8-21, 21-10, 15-21.

Mouma Das, the second seed, after establishing a comfortable 2-0 lead against Kasturi Chakraborty (Bengal), slipped behind to lose in five games.

Chakraborty, who lost the first two games 13-21, 20-22, bounced back to claim the next three games 21-17, 21-17, 21-16.

The semi-finals and the final in both categories are slated for Thursday.