E-Paper
District table tennis: Second seed Raikhelkar fights back from 2-0 deficit to enter semi-final
Raikhelkar, who began the tournament in fine nick was astonished to see herself falter to an early 2-0 deficit.
Second seed Mrunmayee Raikhelkar toppled the tenth seed Vaishnavi Devgade 5-11, 12-14, 12-10, 11-08, 11-06, 11-03 to make the semi-finals in the junior girls (under-18) event of the Sharada district ranking table tennis tournament 2019 held at the Sharada Sports Centre in Karve Nagar on Friday.
Having moved up an age group recently, Raikhelkar, who began the tournament in fine nick was astonished to see herself falter to an early 2-0 deficit.
She only managed to pick up five points from the first game and despite giving a fight in the second, she ended up losing it by a 12-14 score.
Devgade may have felt that her attacking brand of table tennis was paying rich dividends and continued playing in a similar fashion for the rest of the contest.
However, Raikhelkar decided to get her act together and opted to slow down the pace, rather than matching her opponent stroke for stroke.
It was a strategy she spoke about at the end of the game and it proved to be the turning point of the match.
Raikhelkar immediately found herself in charge of the match and after winning the third by a narrow margin, she got the impetus needed to win the next three in a convincing manner.
The final game of the match proved to be a mere formality as her opponent seemed to lose interest while the second seed stuck to her basics and ensured that she got the job done without letting any nerves kick in.
Players say
Mrunmayee Raikhelkar: “I was taken aback after going down two games so I had to change my strategy in order to get back in the match. I think I lost focus in the earlier games and everything seemed to be happening so quickly. I learnt that I shouldn’t make any silly mistakes and hopefully, this will serve as a wake-up call for me.”
Vaishnavi Devgade: “I’m disappointed to lose after holding a 2-0 lead. What I think helped her was that she started playing a lot more rallies – something that suits her playing style while I’m more of an attacking player. I felt I was a bit nervy midway through the rallies and that’s what cost me dearly.”
