Saha stuns top seed, in women's semis

R Abhishek and Soumyajit Ghosh entered their maiden semifinals and Nandita Saha her first in six years, upsetting India No.1 and top seed Mouma Das 4-3 on the way in the Keventer 72nd senior national and inter state table tennis championships on Saturday. Dhiman Sarkar reports.

R Abhishek and Soumyajit Ghosh entered their maiden semifinals and Nandita Saha her first in six years, upsetting India No.1 and top seed Mouma Das 4-3 on the way in the Keventer 72nd senior national and inter state table tennis championships on Saturday.

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Six years ago when Saha lost to Das in the national championship semifinals, she realised players had begun exploiting her lack of backhand. From being an India No. 3, Saha, 26, became No. 15. That may still be some way from changing but what better way to show she's back than by beating the current India No.1. And that too after adding a mean backhand to her repertoire. "I was struggling with her backhand serve. I told myself to focus on returning her serves first," Saha said, after qualifying for the semis.