Soumyajit, Ankita enter semifinals at 81st National Table Tennis Championships

Soumyajit Ghosh and Ankita Das progressed to the semifinals of the men's and women's singles respectively at the 81st National Table Tennis Championships here on Saturday.

Soumyajit and Ankita, who had qualified for the 2012 London Games, notched up thrilling wins over A Sharath Kamal and Anusha Kutumbale respectively to enter the last four at the Saroonagar Indoor Stadium here.

Soumyajit beat second seed Sharath 4-2 to set up a meeting with Harmeet Desai, while Ankita took a set more to beat Anusha 4-3. She will face last year's runner-up Krittwika Sinha Roy on Sunday.

Top-seed G Sathiyan survived a couple of scares from Ronit Bhanja en route to the semis even as Manav Thakkar, the fourth seed, dropped a game before prevailing over Sarthak Gandhi.

Results:

Men Singles: Quarterfinals: G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Ronit Bhanja (Beng A) 11-6, 9-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9, Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt Sarthak Gandhi (TTFI) 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Sanil Shetty (PSPB) ...