Senhora saves Maharashtra the blushes

Senhora D'Souza's comeback secures Maharashtra's victory over Assam in a thrilling women's team championship match.

Trisha Gogoi gave Assam the best chance by overcoming both her fancied opponents in a nail-biting clash. But Senhora D’Souza saved Maharashtra – last year’s bronze medallist – the agony of a round of 16 exit by clinching the decisive game of the deciding tie despite having her back to the wall.

As a result, riding on Senhora’s comeback win, Maharashtra edged past Assam 3-2 to set up a quarterfinal clash against Haryana in the women’s team championship of the 86th Senior National Championship at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Stadium here on Monday.

When Trisha stunning an in-form Taneesha Kotecha in the clash between the strongest players to level the tie at two matches apiece and enforce the deciding rubber, Senhora was expected to sail past Bhavna Kashyap.

However, while Bhavna upped her ante midway through the match, Senhora, the seasoned campaigner, stiffened up in the fourth game. In the fifth game, Bhavna’s forehand top-spins saw her racing to a 7-3 lead and the Assam girls could sense an upset. Senhora then started opening up her forehand to first level the scores at 7-7. 

However, Bhavna then raced to a 10-8 lead and had two match points. But a mistake by Bhavna followed by a forehand top-spin enforced the tie-break and Senhora had the last laugh as Maharashtra coach Mahendra Chiplunkar heaved a sigh of relief.

In the men’s section, P.B. Abhinandh maintained a clean slate while S. Preyesh Raj upset veteran Sourav Saha to help Tamil Nadu overcome Bengal 3-1 and set up a quarterfinal face-off against Delhi. TTFI 1 – comprising one of the two disputed Rajasthan factions – first upset Bengal to top Group D and then saw off Gujarat 3-2 in a marathon pre-quarterfinal

The results: